August 17, 2022 • 42 mins
Dan Hanzus and Colleen Wolfe recap the second episode of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions, beginning with top takeaways from the episode. Then, Dan and Colleen cover rookie linebacker Malcolm "Rodrigo" Rodriguez (8:35), Duce Staley's coaching of running back D'Andre Swift (11:31), the introduction to second-year wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and his father John Brown (15:25), and more from Aiden Hutchinson's family as they watch him play his first NFL game (19:40). After the break, we talk about David Blough's role in the episode and his unfortunate game-losing fumble (21:19), as well as Barry Sanders making an appearance at practice (23:46) before our Liev Schreiber Quote of the Week (26:55). Next, Dan and Colleen give their plot-line predictions for the following week (30:09), and finally, we wrap up the show with the Episode MVP voting using the vector voting system (31:44).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Detroy Dey is a good sports town. Detroit is fiercely
proud of its tigers and just as partisan about its lions.
What's the play they keep on trying? That's all Welcome
(00:22):
to another edition of Hard Knocks, presented by Around the NFL.
I'm Dan Jansas, and I'm joined by the tiny box
to my tug boat wearing a robe somewhere I don't
know where, but you look smashing, Colleen Wolf. Dan, Uh,
(00:44):
this is a big day for me. I am in
Sonoma for a work event, and I am feeling a
little ron Burgundy. I'm really leaning in and enjoying myself.
So I put on this blue robe to do the show.
Is this gonna end with you having a brown drink
in your hand and yelling cannonball and jumping into a
ten foot pool? I hope. So I have to locate
(01:05):
a couple of those items first during the show, but
maybe if everyone's lucky fingers crossed? All right? So we are, yes,
separated by hundreds of miles, but we're together to talk.
Episode two of Hard Knocks training Camp with the Detroit
Lions and uh Connie. Once again, the David Robodo theme
song snaps you right into it. I'm focused. I do
(01:29):
not want to let Dan Campbell down because I don't
want him to go on me like he will on
you if you're not paying attention during a preseason game, which,
by the way, that's a huge ask. We've been watching
football for a long time, Connie. Everybody knows that preseason is,
you know, kind of a joke, especially later in games,
and if you're an every day or a starting player,
(01:50):
keeping your focus on the game is not something you
typically see when they flashed to the sidelines. And yet
Dan Campbell was telling his gang, if you are not
locked in every second of this preseason game, I will
kill you. Basically, I'm paraphrasing, well, I can't believe that
your Mike already hasn't been cut off. The preseason is
(02:10):
a big deal. You can catch twenty two live ones
on NFL Network. All of the games will be there.
I was in the studio on Saturday, and I feel
like I know everything about Kenny Pickett at this point.
Listen the preseason. It's a big deal. But I can
understand how players might not be locked in, especially for
(02:31):
the Lions when they're playing Falcons. Fourth quarter of a
preseason game between the Lions and the Falcons is a
little bleak, not gonna lie. But Dan Campbell he's trying
to get his guys to focus in and I appreciate that. Yeah,
And I thought, obviously coming off episode one, Episode one
was I thought, such a banger in the history, the
(02:51):
rich history, the history is rich Connie of this uh
documentary series that I don't remember the cold open of
the show being a last time on Hard Knocks, which
was appropriate because it was a banger. There are a
few premiers that stack up in recent years like this
one did, so we got to see many of the
(03:11):
greatest hits from episode one, and of course Dan Campbell
was prominently involved. And when you look at episode two,
Campbell is not as much or is not as high
in the mix as he was an episode one, and
that that's okay, he can't. It doesn't have to be
all Dan Campbell all the time. Uh. Instead, I thought
this this episode kind of showed us when you think
(03:31):
about what was the theme of this episode, What was
NFL films, What is HBO trying to tell us uh
with the story here? I think the theme was the
Lions are now in training camp. They are in the
middle of it there and and we're starting to get
a better idea of what this team is up against.
Quite frankly, because I think there's been so much positive
vibes around the Detroit Lions and throughout this offseason, the draft,
(03:57):
the ramp up, all the field good vibes, um, all
the talk about the improved roster, the number two overall
pick um. And now you have a situation where you
forget that this team went three and four teen last
year and this team has Jared Goff as the starting quarterback,
no disrespect intended, and this team has so much work
to do to get to where they need to be.
(04:18):
And you even see it. And we're going to get
to the preseason game that capped this episode. In that game,
and it reminded me kind of how many terrible losses
they had last season where they couldn't close a game,
and they didn't close a preseason game, and uh so
that was a big takeaway from me that yes, the
Lions are fun, they're frisky, they got grit for days,
(04:40):
but this episode reminded us that this their a long
way from where they want to be. Episode two was
basically a reality check. Episode one felt like all of
the buzz. This team has so much personality. There is
so much optimism and positivity around them. They're gonna be amazing.
It's a fresh start. Look at all these like former
(05:00):
players that are coaches, and then you get a preseason
game and you remember everything that happened last year. Now
a couple of things that you mentioned off the top here.
I also noted that Dan Campbell, he was featured a
little less in this episode. I did enjoy the ad
a baby that we got a lot from him. I
didn't you know, we heard an episode one. Everything was like,
(05:23):
come on, man, like man, you know, it's a lot
of man's which I appreciate. But the ad a baby
was new, and I don't know if that is a
phrase that everybody uses. Maybe I'm just like not in
the know about it, but I ad a baby maybe
had faded in the parlance of society a little bit, uh,
and now maybe come back thanks to Dan Campbell dent
(05:46):
talent right right like at a baby, I'd kiss you
right now if you weren't breathing so hard. Dan Campbell
said at one point that was interesting. But I did
have a little bit of I lose track of these things.
I have no idea what is right and what is
wrong anymore, but I do know that Dan Campbell has
shades of Matt Foley and his voice and his intensity
(06:07):
when he's screaming at the team from SNL. Great Chris
Marley who played uh Matt Folly the motivational speaker with
David Spade, And I can't even remember who else was
in that amazing the other sister in the most famous
one when he fell into the table or fell through
the table. Yeah, living in a van down by the river.
(06:30):
So when you watch these episodes, I want you to
think about that. Um. But overall, I think that my
big takeaway from this episode and the theme that I
got was that they are trying to get this team,
the Lions, to match the attitude of the city, that
it's on the rise, and that it is completely gritty.
It's Detroit against everybody. It's literally on the walls. Dan
(06:53):
Campbell has GrITT written on his hat. I mean, this
is very it's it's a little like Philadelphia in like
Philly versus the world. That was kind of their mantro.
And they went to the super Bowl, but it felt
like an episode where the producers and everyone was was
kind of trying to show that this team is trying
(07:16):
to prove how physical and attacking they want to be.
That the coaches are working so hard to change the
culture there, and you can see that when Aaron Glenn
is like addressing the team about changing their mindset and
that they need to get that winning feeling back. You
can see that when Kelvin Shepherd, it is Kelvin Shephard, right, Yeah,
(07:37):
the coach is kind of address I mean when I
say addressing the linebackers, he was basically like chewing them
out for Rodrigo being able, like showing them all up.
You can see it when Duce Staley is telling the
coach does what he wants out of Swift. It's all
throughout the show. It's woven in. It's Amant Ross st
(07:57):
Brown versus everybody. I mean, you can it from start
to finish. So that was kind of like my big takeaway.
That's a great like sports mentality to have the nobody
believes in his card. It's been a well worn trope
for decades and decades, but it it does suit the
Lions well. And I think Campbell's wise to play that
(08:17):
way because you are playing off the failure of the
failures of the organization for decades upon decades. So that
was so you take this stance of listen, every nobody
thinks we can do it, but we think we can
do it. And that's what training camp is about. It's
us going into bunker mode together to figure figure it out.
(08:38):
And you brought up Malcolm Rodriguez, who is um. He
is our right now alone in the clubhouse as the
lead underdog of season seventeen of Hard Knocks. He is
ah what was he a fifth round pick? Justin sixth
round pick, Malcolm Rodriguez. We saw him briefly uh doing
a dance um an episode one, but now we see
(09:01):
him blowing up uh, blowing up the offense at the
linebacker position in episode two. And you get glowing praise
by Kelvin Shepherd UM just using Malcolm Rodriguez as a
basically a guy saying listen, this is who you need
to be better than. He's only a six round pick,
(09:22):
which I thought with Rodriguez right there in the meeting room,
a little bit of a weird vibe that maybe is like,
what do you mean, why are you actually like it's
not good enough? That I'm not you know, you're these
guys shouldn't be better than me. But I thought it
was an app point that he was making that uh
and he made sure Shepherd to pump him up by saying,
coach has been in this building for five years, said
he has not seen a stack linebacker made this kind
(09:44):
of play, referring to one play where he blew up
a player, and it's like, I will say one warning.
I want to give a warning to viewers that maybe
don't know hard knocks as well as us. When you start,
when you have a segment when a player, uh low
drafted player and undrafted player gets talked up like that,
you assume he's going to be a star. He very
well could be cut at the end of this month
(10:06):
or early September. That's how this game works sometimes. But
it looks like Malcolm Rodriguez is earning his key. I'm
also the linebackers maybe they just aren't that good. I mean,
you have that that meeting was kind of tense, like
him motivating the other linebackers by low key shading Rodrigo
(10:27):
at the same time like that was basically you could
look at it two ways. Do we have an issue
with the nickname Rodrigo. Is that? I mean, that's his
name is Rodriguez, And we could do better than that, right, Well,
this was the nickname that was given on the first day,
So that to me kind of spokelish because it seems
(10:49):
like you have to earn everything on this team except
maybe your nicknames, because it's a big nickname team. You
got Josh Reynolds, they call him the Serpent of Dea.
Did you catch that at the beginning? Like, I don't
know if that was just like, I mean, funches, bunches
of oats there there's a lot of nicknames throughout this
(11:11):
entire episode, but the Serpent of Death was one that
both stood out to me. You're kind of making my
point like Josh Reynolds is as a serpent of death
and Malcolm Rodriguez is Rodrigo. I mean, I just I
don't know, I don't have to I don't have a
big issue with it, but maybe in this one in
this one case, I think Dan Campbell could do a
little better than that. You also mentioned, uh, DeAndre Swift
(11:34):
and you know, I want to play this clip from
Deuce Staley who had another big show. I thought another
big app for Deuce, the former Eagles running back turned
assistant coach of the Lions, and Um, I want to
play what Dud's had to say speaking in a private
UM conference room with the other coaches about Swift. Uh.
(11:54):
And then I have another thing to add. Let's listen
to that grave digger Swift. Time you step on I
need him to know when he's one on one, no
matter if he's running around or he has the ball
in his hand, no one can guard him or time.
I want him to go to Dan and halftime. So
coach on the ball. He got it. It's in there,
(12:19):
boys special and every day we go out there between
those lines, he gotta believe that. And I'm gonna try
my hardest to get that shout of him. I ain't
gonna try, I'm gonna get it out him because he
can be so special. I've been around some guys that's
been in space, two special ones. He got it. And
(12:39):
you see right after that, dude standing a private meeting
with the runnings back running backs because Staley is also
the running backs coach, challenging Swift to be a more
aggressive runner, to to kind of go the act. Take
it to the next level. Uh, and take all that
promise and turn it into him being a top running
back in the league. And I think you've got a
nice glimpse there, Connie into the team's feelings on Swift
(13:02):
as he enters his third year. He was the thirty
fifth overall pick in draft. Going in the top thirty
five is a running back in the modern NFL means
a team thinks you're a star. And I think he's
flashed that. And he certainly was on his way to
having a star type season last year before he got
injured in Week twelve. But you you could tell they're
banking on him to be a stud and and there's
(13:23):
maybe some messaging that they see that hasn't gotten through
yet that they're trying to get into his head. And
this was another example that I sort of put in
that bucket of the coaches trying to change the mentality
of the entire team, because this seems like it's not
a physical thing with Swift, because Deuce seems to love him.
It's more of a mental thing. It's more of unlocking
(13:45):
that potential, like when he says that he wants to
know that he's the best on the field. When Swift
walks on the field, Like, that's a confidence thing to me.
When he says that he wants Swift to go to
him and say I want the ball, that's a draw
of things. That's a competitive fire thing to me. This
is saying that he is just one of the players
(14:05):
on the team that maybe is getting comfortable in being complacent.
Like Michael Irvin always talks about when he first got
to Dallas and they were bad, and Irv had been
really good in college and he just was always wired
that way, and when he got into that locker room,
he was like, I don't understand, Like, why aren't you
(14:26):
guys upset? Why aren't you guys like trying to get better?
And the veterans were like, you know, you just gotta
cash that check. You're good. And so he always talks
about how difficult it was to change the culture, and
that's something that you can see especially with Swift, because
he really likes him. It's he seems to think that
Swift is on the precipice of kind of greatness and
(14:48):
if he just gives that little extra effort, you know,
if he just gives that stiff arm, then he'll get
the touchdown. If he's a little bit more physical. If
he is a little bit more greedy, then they can
they can get over that hump. And it's it's not
just him, it's him and it's everybody on the team. Yeah.
I think with Swift he has all the talent in
the world. We need to get some more grit into Swift.
(15:11):
And like you said, the Stiff Farm where that we
see the clip where do Stanley makes a point to say,
you could have scored here if you would have gotten
more physical bouncing inside instead of bouncing outside in the
preseason game given it to him. So a little tough
love for Swift thought that was interesting. How about Connie
um Arman, ross st Brown and uh Grave Digger. I
(15:34):
know this one hit home for you because he's coming
off an excellent season um and he was the first
to say, in fact, that's how we we first learned
about um st Brown where he says for me, I'd
say my draft experience with and then he goes over
through every single receiver and how many of them were there,
(15:55):
just including a certain Tennessee tighten your favorite team. Yes,
sixteen receivers drafted ahead of him, including Dez Fitzpatrick to
the Titans. The final receiver drafted ahead of Aman Ross St. Brown. Yeah,
so he and he takes those off Connie off the
top of his head. So he's one of those motivation guys.
We learned a lot about the st. Brown or was
it Brown family. It's a little confusing, okay. So one
(16:19):
of the things that I found really interesting was when
almam Ras St. Brown was reciting all of the receivers
and the schools they went to. He did it with
a thousand yards stare, like he kind of just was
like a little dead in the eyes while he was
who saw too much that type of so so he
is that is absolutely a chip on his shoulder. But
(16:41):
the whole family. This episode also kind of had like
a little family ties theme throughout it with Alma Ross St. Brown,
with hutch At Aidan Hutchinson and his family again with
David Baloo. But just to stay on Alman Raw real quick,
like his dad being was your universe. I had interviewed
(17:03):
his brother, Equonymius St. Brown at the Combine when he
was coming out, and so I have all of these
fun facts which I did not bother to double check
double source here, but I'm gonna tell you what I
have in my notes and you can do whatever you
guys want with them. But I do have a little
note here that says the dad added st to his
(17:26):
last name because he said it just kind of came
to him in the moment, and he thought it was
cool on the back of a jersey because it was
when we see the dad's name is John Brown. It
did throw me for a loop. Then it took me
a while to recover from. But Satan was added. Okay, right,
so there's that. Then. Another little fun fact about his brother, Equanimius,
(17:47):
was that his dad started him lifting weights at age
eight and would feed him protein shakes and red meat
three times a day. Now that is unconfirmed. Not sure
about that. However, his dad seemed pretty intense in this episode,
and even when they were working out, the fact there's
no talking really allowed. They're working out, and I'm not
(18:09):
sure while why his dad was talking down to water,
but he was saying, what's wrong with spit? Are you're
getting soft? Now? I don't know. I feel like water
is kind of a pretty well known thing. But he's
he's old school. He's like Bear Bryant having a nine
hour practice in summer without water breaks because it makes
you a better football player, I vibe. I don't. I
don't necessarily, I feel like the science doesn't support lack
(18:32):
of hydration during high level exercising. But yeah, no water allowed,
no talking um, the stuff about eating all the red
meat and what was the other note you had there, Uh,
that he would just get proteins a very young age.
And at least that was equanimious. I'm sure maybe I
don't know. They both got it. And then somehow Kevin
(18:54):
Durant at one point catches a stray because his achilles
because he wasn't doing enough guess calf exercises. I was like, whoa,
this dude is wildly intense. Um. And I will say
that I do believe the Brown family or the st Brown's,
whatever you want to refer to them as, they should
have a suite. I mean, if we're gonna give then
(19:16):
I understand the Hutches. It's twenty million dollars um guaranteed
in the in the bonus money. And but it's not
a great look when you got the Browns down there
in the two hundred level and then you flash up
to the Hutches and let's check in with the Hutches.
What is the name of the sitcom when the Hutches
have their own sitcom checking in with the Hutches. That's
that's let's workshop that one. Um. I enjoyed a lot
(19:41):
about it. I like the moment with Mia Hutchinson. I
filed this under one of my quotes of the Day
from episode two. Just um, I don't know. I just
like the way she said this play great digger. I
just like the way she said that. Well. Also, the
mom like shushes them. They're like come like, She's like,
come on, Aidan is in here. But it's a very
(20:04):
relatable thing, especially when like some of these quarterbacks are
changing teams in the off season. Um, that was that
was very funny. I was thinking maybe, like the no
I was, I was trying to workshop a Hutch name
for you, but the Brady Hatch doesn't work. Never mind,
Um what I would like to Yeah, we will, we will.
(20:24):
I like that they have a family logo on their
tease team Hutch that they all wear. It's like a
customize logo. But the shade the ship. I mean, it's
an old school upright, is that what the logo is?
I think? So, yeah, yeah, that's a you know, they're
getting creative I'm sure they have a name workshopped for
their sitcom, but I did love the shade that uh
(20:48):
Ros Dad John Brown kind of sent their way when
he said they're not sitting in the stands with us
like nikes. Um, that was that was a rough moment.
But I'm like a crossover with the Browns and the
Hutches on a very special episode of Hanging with the Hutches.
(21:09):
There you've got. I think that would really work. Let's
take a break and then Connie's going to drop a
hammer of an observation from episode two. We'll be right back. Great, alright,
Conne I teased it, so you did? You did? Um?
And I was like going to bring up David Blow here,
So I always though that is a good spot. Is
(21:29):
it time for the blow Hards? Listeners are the around
the NFL podcast? UM are surely aware that a few
years back, Mark Sessler colleague UM fell fell hard for
David Blow and UM formed a fan club called the
blow Hards. And I have since signed up with the
(21:50):
blow Hards. I know you're a member, card carrying member
of the blow Hards, of course, So this was kind
of a bitter sweet episode from that standpoint. A tough blow,
if you will. For for the blow hards, it was
it was tough to see his wife Melissa watching the
game and the stands, and it was not a great
(22:13):
game for him. The play by play said, especially well
with me when he said I can't remember who was
calling the game, but Blow is running out of time.
It hit a little different, you know, like you could
take that a lot of different ways. He kind of
is running out of time. He for people you know
a little behind the scenes. I mean, listen, Jared starting quarterback,
(22:34):
but Tim Boyle and David Blower and the in the
battle for the backup duties, and this is this has
always been traditionally really fertile ground for hard knocks, the
backup quarterback role. So I do want to I want
to see the other side of I want to get
some boil uh in the in the future episodes to
get that side of things. But I do like Blow.
(22:55):
I like that he was involved. I like meeting his
Olympian wife. But it is the bitter sweet aspect of
a Connie is how we had all the build up
and he's going to her training and we're seeing the
rooting uh in the from the team headquarters a year
earlier when she was qualifying for the Olympics, and then
(23:15):
for the preseason game to have a hideous botch snap
in the fourth quarter, and then the fourth quarter rally
goes nowhere, the blow hards are, you know, not feeling
too hot, and we're worried about his job prospects to
hold onto this gig. Sure, but hopefully there's a redemption
story right around the corner, because that has been the
(23:36):
blow hards calling card um with him, so we'll say
maybe he can recreate. Wasn't a Thanksgiving that he had
that amazing game and we have like one. Really it
was Thanksgiving. Another highlight for me was Barry Sanders being
a big fan of the field conditions. I mean, he
just was going on and on about the grass. You know, listen,
(23:57):
if you're old enough to remember Barry Sanders, and I was,
I was a high school kid when he was the
greatest running back on the planet, Listen. Emma Smith might
have been the most decorated or that have the most yards,
but the best running back in the nineties and maybe
the best running back ever in the non Jim Brown
category to me might be Barry Sanders. That's how amazing
(24:18):
he was and special. And Barry is not, to me
the most charismatic individual when I see when he's interviewed,
he doesn't always jump off the page. And I you
almost could sense the hard knocks wanted to give him
a little more juice in this episode, but it just
didn't say anything that interesting on the sideline other than man,
this grass iss sure is green? I mean, listen, he
(24:42):
loved it, though I did enjoy the flashback to where
he had the massive shoulder pads, like with the dead
grass supporting as a quick as side. It is incredible
how far the teams and the league itself has come
in terms of field preparation and maintaining and in general
just putting in the players in the best position to
(25:04):
be healthy and successful. Uh. That was only and it
looked like they were playing on a sand lot in
Brooklyn in nineteen fifty. It was like, what are we
what are we doing here? But luckily Barry never suffered
an injury on that type of turf. Um. You know,
since you bring it up, two things Number one, um,
(25:25):
I once covered the first Super Bowl ever covered with
Super Bowl forty six in Indianapolis. Giants Patriots too and
me and Mark it was both our first Super Bowl
UH coverage experience together. And our boss at the time,
Justin um, put us to work and it was fine.
We were young and hungry and we wanted it. We
ended up both working like seventy five or eighty hours
(25:47):
that week. When we turned to the time card, it
was like a minor disaster back in the home office
when we turned in the card. But you get up
to that number because of things like on Saturday before
the Super Bowl, I was sent to cover the celebrity
flag football game at the minor league field in Indianapolis,
which was wild. Uh Snoop was the captain of one team.
(26:07):
I believe Maria Minutos was the standout on the other team.
And the only thing I can tell you is that
it was a mix of UM stars, stars and and
retired athletes and Barry Sanders. I'll never forget being completely
kind of out of the game plan. Like Barry Sanders
(26:30):
was on one of the teams in this flag football
contest and they rarely used him. I'll never forget that,
just seeing Barry wandering around the field not getting the
ball and who put this together? Whose fault was that?
I don't know, and then also on the Barry Sanders tip,
Yes it is time now for our Leef Schreiber quote
of the week with our Leef Schreiber stand in the
(26:53):
great Jason Zumwalt take it away, Jay Detroit Icon Barry Sanders,
is this straight up legend ironic because straight lines were
never his move? Two for two so good, He's so
good at this they could just pay some wall to
(27:13):
do it. Yeah, well, probably be cheaper, all right. What
other takeaways Connie as we get uh closer to the
picks for episodes, Yes, I just have like, uh two
other little things, you know how I I think the
greatest compliment that anyone can give is calling someone a bastard,
because that's what I have named our a t N
(27:36):
text change of bastards. Like, when someone is a bastard,
they are someone who can joke around and they can
kind of like trash each other in a fun way.
And I feel like we saw that a lot throughout
this episode with Douce Daley telling guys to study because
they're not getting dates for their looks. Dan Campbell getting
(27:57):
on T. J. Hockenson about his short that looked like
his wives have shorts that looked like that they were
very short. I mean that was that was one of
the highlights for me. But I think that that is
sort of a recurring theme that there are some some
pretty big bustards on this team. Yeah, that's good starts. UM.
(28:18):
Always good to have a few of those. Are a
bunch of those. UM. I had a question about hutch
hutch did the MJ sack celebration or a tackle? He
had a tackle for loss in the preseason game, um,
and it was Michael Jackson impersonation. I don't know, because
I don't follow the game college game closely. Was that
directly because of the Billy Jean moment from episode one
(28:41):
or was that something he's done previous in his career.
I assumed that it was because of episode one, and
I think at one point even his mom says that
she had texted him about it earlier in the day
like that. So I think that they're just trying to
like build the brand a little bit. It's like they
have the Hut clothing line. They're trying to build that
brand and aid Hutchinson was also rehearsing the handshake that
(29:05):
he was going to do. I guess it's like a
handshakes handshakes celebration, like when he was tapping someone up.
They were rehearsing it on the side earlier in the episode,
so I thought that was kind of cute. It was
it was is there anything else we want to hit
before we get to our m v P votes using
voting system. The only thing I was thinking was in
(29:26):
the recap, like last time on Hard Knocks, they replayed
Jamal Williams and his speech and when he said if
you're going to piss like a puppy, stay on the
porch and let the big dogs eat. In the moment,
I really wasn't sure what the hell he was talking about,
but when they replayed it, I figured it out. I
finally realized, Oh, I guess he means the puppies are
(29:48):
scared and that's why they're pissing on the porch. But
it's still a little unclear. I guess that's in connect
with you. It didn't connect with me because I've never
had puppies pissing on the porch before. I've never had
a porch, So yeah, I guess the big dogs eating
and the puppies pissing, I got like a little confused
in the metaphors. Okay, well you eventually landed it, so
(30:08):
everything everything's fine. Plotline predictions for episode three I got, okay,
we need and you could feel it the Hard Knocks
producers like, Okay, we need to get into Jared Goff
at some point? Is it if we wait till episode four?
That feels too long? We can't push it an episode
five because that's just almost disrespect got the time before
(30:31):
gone right, So it's like, I feel like episode three
is going to be a neat little spot for him. Um,
we're still waiting, as I mentioned last week, for a
visit downtown that pays homage to the Detroit music scene,
you know, soul, blues, hip hop, garage rock. You know,
we get a Jack White visit, his visits Lions Practice.
You know, these are all things that could be that.
(30:53):
And uh, one last prediction is you you mentioned Jamal
Williams and his dog metaphors, Um, bring him back? I
mean I was saying before the show to grave digression
and who's an example of a running back who whenever
he gets a chance, shines and then all of a
sudden he goes into hibernation. The coach puts him in
(31:14):
Mothballs Tony Pollard. Great job by Grave Digger there with
the cowboys. That's what it felt like for episode two.
It's like Jammal Williams just blew up the world and
then all we get from him is an episode closing
Uh dad joke about James Bond. I need more Jamal
Williams in episode three, bubb seven, it was so good
(31:34):
James Bond taking a bath Bubbalo seven. Let's listen to
the joke in case you didn't hear the joke. What
s alright, It's time for episode MVP voting again. Vector
voting scale, first, second, and third place votes all carried
different H point totals that are weighted. At the end
(31:55):
of the fifth episode the finale on September six, we
will reveal uh through addition just simple math, that Grave
Digger will handle um who is indeed the Hard Knocks
m VP for who is your first place? Wait? Dan,
can I stop you right there? Yeah? What if we
count up from third second first? A little more drama
(32:17):
on the reveal? You know, what good job are you?
It was actually running through my head. Should we do
it that way? I went the other way? But now
that you're coming in. That's good producer work, and that's
Justin Graver. Who is your third place vote for m
VP of episode two. I'm gonna go with Deuce Daley.
He's been a favorite of mine from the jump. Last
(32:38):
week he was my second place vote, so this week
I didn't want to go second place again with Deuce,
so I'm gonna knock him down to three. All Right,
I have and that's a good vote. We're going to
hear more about Deuce in a minute. Third place, I
have Dan Campbell. Obviously this wasn't Campbell's episode one coming
out party, but he had two lines that I love. First,
(32:59):
the a form mentioned uh chance encounter with Hockinson his
tight end that led to this commentary on his shorts
really accentuate. And then uh Devin Funches, who you may
remember once upon a time being a panther's wide receiver
(33:20):
of note. Now he's looking to catch on and make
a splash with the Lions. He makes a nice catch
in the back of the end zone, and I believe
it was a tim Boil throw and Campbell, I think,
kind of into his headset, but also to no one
in particular have this to say funches bunches of votes.
All right, I love that one that gets him, that
(33:40):
gets him on the metal stand. Who's your second place?
Second place is m On raw St Brown's dad, John Brown,
John Brown, Are you serious? John Brown? Don't call him
John st Brown because he's not. Yeah, he's it's gotta be.
I mean the old footage of him as Mr Universe
(34:03):
and then all of the stuff with him in the
weight room with them now, I mean, it was just perfect.
I also like, um, you know, as a dad, and
I just got back from Legoland um today this morning
in fact, and I'm just like, I mean, the eight
year old, we're just starting to bump heads a little
bit because he just won't listen to me as much anymore.
So you know, we're starting to you know, do that thing,
(34:25):
do that dance, that part of fatherhood and you got
a freedom red meat three times a day. That's it.
I like this line. I could I could empathize with
this line from John Brown where he's like, you know,
people should listen to me. I know I'm a father
and I'm freaking Mr Universe two times. I know what
I'm Yes, Maybe he just want at once. M hmmm.
(34:50):
I love how many times do you think he reminds
people about that? And that's so awesome. I love it.
I think John Brown is a reality If it was
two thousand and eight, he would have a reality a
show on TLC. Off this. I mean, maybe there's still time. Yeah,
all right, so we both have John. But I don't know.
I thought about is that throwing away a vote? Because
you know John Brown? Is he gonna keep popping up?
(35:12):
But we don't know. Maybe you will. I hope he's
exactly that's I had no problem with that. A second place,
I bet. I know we're going to have the same
first place now. I don't think so. In fact, I
know we won't. Who's your first place? WHOA I'm going
with Rodrigo. I feel like he had such a big
part of I mean, he was just such a big
(35:33):
part of like that whole speech when Kelvin Sheppard was
ripping everybody apart. He was kind of a star practice. Uh,
you've got Rodrigo talking about it's a great time get
to be hit in practice and hitting people. I don't know.
That was He's my he's my underdog that I'm rooting for,
and so I had to give him my first place vote.
(35:53):
I totally see where you're coming from that. I you know,
the reason why he didn't get a vote for me
is because I thought the storyline around him is interesting,
but I didn't think he personally did enough to get
the gold or or metal for me. So I'm happy
that he's thriving, but I need to see more for
him to get on the metal stand. I gave it
(36:14):
to de Staley. I think that I love Dues how
he's acing what is essentially an audition for the thirty
one other teams as a head coach, and that's what
these that's what this show can be UM for an
assistant coach, And I don't think there's anything I think
he's being himself. I think he's being real. I loved
(36:35):
that uh that whole interlude with uh DeAndre Swift. I
just thought that was that's a good coach. That's a
guy that is using his experience UH to see the
that Swift is a special player. The way he talked
about him to the coaches, the way he spoke directly
UH too Swift in the meeting right after that, And
(36:56):
it did remind me of the so always stuck with
me UM on all or nothing. The all or nothing
season with the Arizona Cardinals. Uh, there's an end of
season meeting, private meeting between the running backs coach of
that team named Stump Mitchell and a young David Johnson,
and Stump Mitchell says kind of the same thing or
(37:18):
something similar uh to what do said to DeAndre Swift,
which is, listen, you could be really special. You could
be as good as anybody in the league right now
if you just keep up what you're doing. That was
more like you're doing everything great, just keep doing it.
Does clearly thinks that Swift needs to be pushed, and
I think, um, Swift, I don't know if he does
(37:40):
make the leap in year three, but I think he
has the right coach to do it. So I think
Deuce back to back episodes has been really uh fun
to watch and just seems like the type exact type
of guy you as a head coach you want underneath
you as an assistant coach. I've been slow playing my
Doucet Dailey love a little bit because i have just
(38:01):
like always loved him so much, and I'm I've been
worried watching this that I'm a little biased because of
his past with the Eagles and everything else. But now
you're just confirming that everything I'm thinking is right. So yeah,
the Deuce Daley love is real. No, the Deuce Staley
train is rolling. And and a special mention to my
guy Aaron Glenn, who I do. I think he's coming
(38:23):
off very well in this show as well. And if
that defense gets a lot better this year, and it could, um,
I think his name is going to come up for
head coaching jobs come January. Uh. Just the guy that
obviously commands respect and knows his ball. All right. Now,
before we say goodbye, a couple of things, Connie, we
gave Grave Digger a lot of work. I feel like
(38:43):
our producer in episode one, I think we had asked him,
uh swag. We asked for Detroit pizza at some point. Yeah,
there might have been a third request that I'm not
recalling out the time. Where are we with the request?
So where are we? Producer? Justin after one week we
(39:06):
have merch has arrived. Hey, this is great. I'm gonna
come in the studio to present it to Dan and
then we can hold up your so you can see it,
because we'll go to you when you're back in town.
I'll be in studio next week. Perfect. I have a
lead on Detroit style pizza, So maybe next week in
studio we'll eat a little bit. Maybe that's a finale thing.
(39:28):
Maybe it is. But if you got to leave, that's
great news. And then the third request I will have
to double check on because I also don't remember what
it was. Um, great, all right here it comes justin
with the shirts we got the merch Yes we got.
And that's not what's a varsity jacket looking? Oh, Connie,
(39:50):
it is NFL films on the front. It's clearly as
Connie's shirt. This would be it's a cruise shirt. Yeah,
T shirt, hard box. True, that's beautiful. Thank you to
Ken Rodgers and the very good. Um, we'll wear that
with pride. Listen, where does that's great? Integrity doesn't isn't
(40:12):
a thing on the Hard Knocks podcast. Now, we're proud
of this, this whole operation and the product, and we're
just promoting it absolutely special shout out to Chris Wong
for sending those to us. Chris, Thanks Chris, We love you.
Um all right now, we'll be back next week episode three.
Make sure you tune it for that and especial I'm
(40:32):
I'm especially excited for this one, Connie, because you're gonna
be in studio with me, and we're gonna really we're
gonna chop up episode three, you know, real quick. I
hope that there's some more cars involved. I know that
that's like another thing with Detroit, and I thought there
would be more cars, like I noticed that they incorporated
some of the guys using like big tires and then
(40:52):
with smash cut to like an old car type thing
to make that Detroit theme go. But I'm hoping there's
more coming up that. You also reminded me of David
blow and his uh hype speech on the last drive
when they're trying to run out the clock and I
don't know if anybody's listening to him, but he's in
the hud only is like, listen, this city. You know
(41:13):
they like it tough. They you know, they want us
to grind this out, and and we're gonna show the
city that we're tough like them. And then like a snap,
fires off his hands again. Bitter sweet day for the
blow hearts. But there's always next week on Hard. I
hope this time next week, Connie, we are talking positively
(41:33):
about David blow having a big week two preseason. But
we'll have to wait. Well, I'll bring the rope all right,
Thank you everybody for listening. Here he comes, David Rob.
Do you think David just walks around the house this plank?
I hope he wakes up and it starts playing. Its
like he just turns it on and his wife's like,
(41:53):
turn it off. He's making coffee with it all. No, no, non,
turn it off? Alright until next week. See
Detroy Dey is a good sports town. Detroit is fiercely
proud of its tigers and just as partisan about its lions.
What's the play they keep on trying? That's all Welcome
(00:22):
to another edition of Hard Knocks, presented by Around the NFL.
I'm Dan Jansas, and I'm joined by the tiny box
to my tug boat wearing a robe somewhere I don't
know where, but you look smashing, Colleen Wolf. Dan, Uh,
(00:44):
this is a big day for me. I am in
Sonoma for a work event, and I am feeling a
little ron Burgundy. I'm really leaning in and enjoying myself.
So I put on this blue robe to do the show.
Is this gonna end with you having a brown drink
in your hand and yelling cannonball and jumping into a
ten foot pool? I hope. So I have to locate
(01:05):
a couple of those items first during the show, but
maybe if everyone's lucky fingers crossed? All right? So we are, yes,
separated by hundreds of miles, but we're together to talk.
Episode two of Hard Knocks training Camp with the Detroit
Lions and uh Connie. Once again, the David Robodo theme
song snaps you right into it. I'm focused. I do
(01:29):
not want to let Dan Campbell down because I don't
want him to go on me like he will on
you if you're not paying attention during a preseason game, which,
by the way, that's a huge ask. We've been watching
football for a long time, Connie. Everybody knows that preseason is,
you know, kind of a joke, especially later in games,
and if you're an every day or a starting player,
(01:50):
keeping your focus on the game is not something you
typically see when they flashed to the sidelines. And yet
Dan Campbell was telling his gang, if you are not
locked in every second of this preseason game, I will
kill you. Basically, I'm paraphrasing, well, I can't believe that
your Mike already hasn't been cut off. The preseason is
(02:10):
a big deal. You can catch twenty two live ones
on NFL Network. All of the games will be there.
I was in the studio on Saturday, and I feel
like I know everything about Kenny Pickett at this point.
Listen the preseason. It's a big deal. But I can
understand how players might not be locked in, especially for
(02:31):
the Lions when they're playing Falcons. Fourth quarter of a
preseason game between the Lions and the Falcons is a
little bleak, not gonna lie. But Dan Campbell he's trying
to get his guys to focus in and I appreciate that. Yeah,
And I thought, obviously coming off episode one, Episode one
was I thought, such a banger in the history, the
(02:51):
rich history, the history is rich Connie of this uh
documentary series that I don't remember the cold open of
the show being a last time on Hard Knocks, which
was appropriate because it was a banger. There are a
few premiers that stack up in recent years like this
one did, so we got to see many of the
(03:11):
greatest hits from episode one, and of course Dan Campbell
was prominently involved. And when you look at episode two,
Campbell is not as much or is not as high
in the mix as he was an episode one, and
that that's okay, he can't. It doesn't have to be
all Dan Campbell all the time. Uh. Instead, I thought
this this episode kind of showed us when you think
(03:31):
about what was the theme of this episode, What was
NFL films, What is HBO trying to tell us uh
with the story here? I think the theme was the
Lions are now in training camp. They are in the
middle of it there and and we're starting to get
a better idea of what this team is up against.
Quite frankly, because I think there's been so much positive
vibes around the Detroit Lions and throughout this offseason, the draft,
(03:57):
the ramp up, all the field good vibes, um, all
the talk about the improved roster, the number two overall
pick um. And now you have a situation where you
forget that this team went three and four teen last
year and this team has Jared Goff as the starting quarterback,
no disrespect intended, and this team has so much work
to do to get to where they need to be.
(04:18):
And you even see it. And we're going to get
to the preseason game that capped this episode. In that game,
and it reminded me kind of how many terrible losses
they had last season where they couldn't close a game,
and they didn't close a preseason game, and uh so
that was a big takeaway from me that yes, the
Lions are fun, they're frisky, they got grit for days,
(04:40):
but this episode reminded us that this their a long
way from where they want to be. Episode two was
basically a reality check. Episode one felt like all of
the buzz. This team has so much personality. There is
so much optimism and positivity around them. They're gonna be amazing.
It's a fresh start. Look at all these like former
(05:00):
players that are coaches, and then you get a preseason
game and you remember everything that happened last year. Now
a couple of things that you mentioned off the top here.
I also noted that Dan Campbell, he was featured a
little less in this episode. I did enjoy the ad
a baby that we got a lot from him. I
didn't you know, we heard an episode one. Everything was like,
(05:23):
come on, man, like man, you know, it's a lot
of man's which I appreciate. But the ad a baby
was new, and I don't know if that is a
phrase that everybody uses. Maybe I'm just like not in
the know about it, but I ad a baby maybe
had faded in the parlance of society a little bit, uh,
and now maybe come back thanks to Dan Campbell dent
(05:46):
talent right right like at a baby, I'd kiss you
right now if you weren't breathing so hard. Dan Campbell
said at one point that was interesting. But I did
have a little bit of I lose track of these things.
I have no idea what is right and what is
wrong anymore, but I do know that Dan Campbell has
shades of Matt Foley and his voice and his intensity
(06:07):
when he's screaming at the team from SNL. Great Chris
Marley who played uh Matt Folly the motivational speaker with
David Spade, And I can't even remember who else was
in that amazing the other sister in the most famous
one when he fell into the table or fell through
the table. Yeah, living in a van down by the river.
(06:30):
So when you watch these episodes, I want you to
think about that. Um. But overall, I think that my
big takeaway from this episode and the theme that I
got was that they are trying to get this team,
the Lions, to match the attitude of the city, that
it's on the rise, and that it is completely gritty.
It's Detroit against everybody. It's literally on the walls. Dan
(06:53):
Campbell has GrITT written on his hat. I mean, this
is very it's it's a little like Philadelphia in like
Philly versus the world. That was kind of their mantro.
And they went to the super Bowl, but it felt
like an episode where the producers and everyone was was
kind of trying to show that this team is trying
(07:16):
to prove how physical and attacking they want to be.
That the coaches are working so hard to change the
culture there, and you can see that when Aaron Glenn
is like addressing the team about changing their mindset and
that they need to get that winning feeling back. You
can see that when Kelvin Shepherd, it is Kelvin Shephard, right, Yeah,
(07:37):
the coach is kind of address I mean when I
say addressing the linebackers, he was basically like chewing them
out for Rodrigo being able, like showing them all up.
You can see it when Duce Staley is telling the
coach does what he wants out of Swift. It's all
throughout the show. It's woven in. It's Amant Ross st
(07:57):
Brown versus everybody. I mean, you can it from start
to finish. So that was kind of like my big takeaway.
That's a great like sports mentality to have the nobody
believes in his card. It's been a well worn trope
for decades and decades, but it it does suit the
Lions well. And I think Campbell's wise to play that
(08:17):
way because you are playing off the failure of the
failures of the organization for decades upon decades. So that
was so you take this stance of listen, every nobody
thinks we can do it, but we think we can
do it. And that's what training camp is about. It's
us going into bunker mode together to figure figure it out.
(08:38):
And you brought up Malcolm Rodriguez, who is um. He
is our right now alone in the clubhouse as the
lead underdog of season seventeen of Hard Knocks. He is
ah what was he a fifth round pick? Justin sixth
round pick, Malcolm Rodriguez. We saw him briefly uh doing
a dance um an episode one, but now we see
(09:01):
him blowing up uh, blowing up the offense at the
linebacker position in episode two. And you get glowing praise
by Kelvin Shepherd UM just using Malcolm Rodriguez as a
basically a guy saying listen, this is who you need
to be better than. He's only a six round pick,
(09:22):
which I thought with Rodriguez right there in the meeting room,
a little bit of a weird vibe that maybe is like,
what do you mean, why are you actually like it's
not good enough? That I'm not you know, you're these
guys shouldn't be better than me. But I thought it
was an app point that he was making that uh
and he made sure Shepherd to pump him up by saying,
coach has been in this building for five years, said
he has not seen a stack linebacker made this kind
(09:44):
of play, referring to one play where he blew up
a player, and it's like, I will say one warning.
I want to give a warning to viewers that maybe
don't know hard knocks as well as us. When you start,
when you have a segment when a player, uh low
drafted player and undrafted player gets talked up like that,
you assume he's going to be a star. He very
well could be cut at the end of this month
(10:06):
or early September. That's how this game works sometimes. But
it looks like Malcolm Rodriguez is earning his key. I'm
also the linebackers maybe they just aren't that good. I mean,
you have that that meeting was kind of tense, like
him motivating the other linebackers by low key shading Rodrigo
(10:27):
at the same time like that was basically you could
look at it two ways. Do we have an issue
with the nickname Rodrigo. Is that? I mean, that's his
name is Rodriguez, And we could do better than that, right, Well,
this was the nickname that was given on the first day,
So that to me kind of spokelish because it seems
(10:49):
like you have to earn everything on this team except
maybe your nicknames, because it's a big nickname team. You
got Josh Reynolds, they call him the Serpent of Dea.
Did you catch that at the beginning? Like, I don't
know if that was just like, I mean, funches, bunches
of oats there there's a lot of nicknames throughout this
(11:11):
entire episode, but the Serpent of Death was one that
both stood out to me. You're kind of making my
point like Josh Reynolds is as a serpent of death
and Malcolm Rodriguez is Rodrigo. I mean, I just I
don't know, I don't have to I don't have a
big issue with it, but maybe in this one in
this one case, I think Dan Campbell could do a
little better than that. You also mentioned, uh, DeAndre Swift
(11:34):
and you know, I want to play this clip from
Deuce Staley who had another big show. I thought another
big app for Deuce, the former Eagles running back turned
assistant coach of the Lions, and Um, I want to
play what Dud's had to say speaking in a private
UM conference room with the other coaches about Swift. Uh.
(11:54):
And then I have another thing to add. Let's listen
to that grave digger Swift. Time you step on I
need him to know when he's one on one, no
matter if he's running around or he has the ball
in his hand, no one can guard him or time.
I want him to go to Dan and halftime. So
coach on the ball. He got it. It's in there,
(12:19):
boys special and every day we go out there between
those lines, he gotta believe that. And I'm gonna try
my hardest to get that shout of him. I ain't
gonna try, I'm gonna get it out him because he
can be so special. I've been around some guys that's
been in space, two special ones. He got it. And
(12:39):
you see right after that, dude standing a private meeting
with the runnings back running backs because Staley is also
the running backs coach, challenging Swift to be a more
aggressive runner, to to kind of go the act. Take
it to the next level. Uh, and take all that
promise and turn it into him being a top running
back in the league. And I think you've got a
nice glimpse there, Connie into the team's feelings on Swift
(13:02):
as he enters his third year. He was the thirty
fifth overall pick in draft. Going in the top thirty
five is a running back in the modern NFL means
a team thinks you're a star. And I think he's
flashed that. And he certainly was on his way to
having a star type season last year before he got
injured in Week twelve. But you you could tell they're
banking on him to be a stud and and there's
(13:23):
maybe some messaging that they see that hasn't gotten through
yet that they're trying to get into his head. And
this was another example that I sort of put in
that bucket of the coaches trying to change the mentality
of the entire team, because this seems like it's not
a physical thing with Swift, because Deuce seems to love him.
It's more of a mental thing. It's more of unlocking
(13:45):
that potential, like when he says that he wants to
know that he's the best on the field. When Swift
walks on the field, Like, that's a confidence thing to me.
When he says that he wants Swift to go to
him and say I want the ball, that's a draw
of things. That's a competitive fire thing to me. This
is saying that he is just one of the players
(14:05):
on the team that maybe is getting comfortable in being complacent.
Like Michael Irvin always talks about when he first got
to Dallas and they were bad, and Irv had been
really good in college and he just was always wired
that way, and when he got into that locker room,
he was like, I don't understand, Like, why aren't you
(14:26):
guys upset? Why aren't you guys like trying to get better?
And the veterans were like, you know, you just gotta
cash that check. You're good. And so he always talks
about how difficult it was to change the culture, and
that's something that you can see especially with Swift, because
he really likes him. It's he seems to think that
Swift is on the precipice of kind of greatness and
(14:48):
if he just gives that little extra effort, you know,
if he just gives that stiff arm, then he'll get
the touchdown. If he's a little bit more physical. If
he is a little bit more greedy, then they can
they can get over that hump. And it's it's not
just him, it's him and it's everybody on the team. Yeah.
I think with Swift he has all the talent in
the world. We need to get some more grit into Swift.
(15:11):
And like you said, the Stiff Farm where that we
see the clip where do Stanley makes a point to say,
you could have scored here if you would have gotten
more physical bouncing inside instead of bouncing outside in the
preseason game given it to him. So a little tough
love for Swift thought that was interesting. How about Connie
um Arman, ross st Brown and uh Grave Digger. I
(15:34):
know this one hit home for you because he's coming
off an excellent season um and he was the first
to say, in fact, that's how we we first learned
about um st Brown where he says for me, I'd
say my draft experience with and then he goes over
through every single receiver and how many of them were there,
(15:55):
just including a certain Tennessee tighten your favorite team. Yes,
sixteen receivers drafted ahead of him, including Dez Fitzpatrick to
the Titans. The final receiver drafted ahead of Aman Ross St. Brown. Yeah,
so he and he takes those off Connie off the
top of his head. So he's one of those motivation guys.
We learned a lot about the st. Brown or was
it Brown family. It's a little confusing, okay. So one
(16:19):
of the things that I found really interesting was when
almam Ras St. Brown was reciting all of the receivers
and the schools they went to. He did it with
a thousand yards stare, like he kind of just was
like a little dead in the eyes while he was
who saw too much that type of so so he
is that is absolutely a chip on his shoulder. But
(16:41):
the whole family. This episode also kind of had like
a little family ties theme throughout it with Alma Ross St. Brown,
with hutch At Aidan Hutchinson and his family again with
David Baloo. But just to stay on Alman Raw real quick,
like his dad being was your universe. I had interviewed
(17:03):
his brother, Equonymius St. Brown at the Combine when he
was coming out, and so I have all of these
fun facts which I did not bother to double check
double source here, but I'm gonna tell you what I
have in my notes and you can do whatever you
guys want with them. But I do have a little
note here that says the dad added st to his
(17:26):
last name because he said it just kind of came
to him in the moment, and he thought it was
cool on the back of a jersey because it was
when we see the dad's name is John Brown. It
did throw me for a loop. Then it took me
a while to recover from. But Satan was added. Okay, right,
so there's that. Then. Another little fun fact about his brother, Equanimius,
(17:47):
was that his dad started him lifting weights at age
eight and would feed him protein shakes and red meat
three times a day. Now that is unconfirmed. Not sure
about that. However, his dad seemed pretty intense in this episode,
and even when they were working out, the fact there's
no talking really allowed. They're working out, and I'm not
(18:09):
sure while why his dad was talking down to water,
but he was saying, what's wrong with spit? Are you're
getting soft? Now? I don't know. I feel like water
is kind of a pretty well known thing. But he's
he's old school. He's like Bear Bryant having a nine
hour practice in summer without water breaks because it makes
you a better football player, I vibe. I don't. I
don't necessarily, I feel like the science doesn't support lack
(18:32):
of hydration during high level exercising. But yeah, no water allowed,
no talking um, the stuff about eating all the red
meat and what was the other note you had there, Uh,
that he would just get proteins a very young age.
And at least that was equanimious. I'm sure maybe I
don't know. They both got it. And then somehow Kevin
(18:54):
Durant at one point catches a stray because his achilles
because he wasn't doing enough guess calf exercises. I was like, whoa,
this dude is wildly intense. Um. And I will say
that I do believe the Brown family or the st Brown's,
whatever you want to refer to them as, they should
have a suite. I mean, if we're gonna give then
(19:16):
I understand the Hutches. It's twenty million dollars um guaranteed
in the in the bonus money. And but it's not
a great look when you got the Browns down there
in the two hundred level and then you flash up
to the Hutches and let's check in with the Hutches.
What is the name of the sitcom when the Hutches
have their own sitcom checking in with the Hutches. That's
that's let's workshop that one. Um. I enjoyed a lot
(19:41):
about it. I like the moment with Mia Hutchinson. I
filed this under one of my quotes of the Day
from episode two. Just um, I don't know. I just
like the way she said this play great digger. I
just like the way she said that. Well. Also, the
mom like shushes them. They're like come like, She's like,
come on, Aidan is in here. But it's a very
(20:04):
relatable thing, especially when like some of these quarterbacks are
changing teams in the off season. Um, that was that
was very funny. I was thinking maybe, like the no
I was, I was trying to workshop a Hutch name
for you, but the Brady Hatch doesn't work. Never mind,
Um what I would like to Yeah, we will, we will.
(20:24):
I like that they have a family logo on their
tease team Hutch that they all wear. It's like a
customize logo. But the shade the ship. I mean, it's
an old school upright, is that what the logo is?
I think? So, yeah, yeah, that's a you know, they're
getting creative I'm sure they have a name workshopped for
their sitcom, but I did love the shade that uh
(20:48):
Ros Dad John Brown kind of sent their way when
he said they're not sitting in the stands with us
like nikes. Um, that was that was a rough moment.
But I'm like a crossover with the Browns and the
Hutches on a very special episode of Hanging with the Hutches.
(21:09):
There you've got. I think that would really work. Let's
take a break and then Connie's going to drop a
hammer of an observation from episode two. We'll be right back. Great, alright,
Conne I teased it, so you did? You did? Um?
And I was like going to bring up David Blow here,
So I always though that is a good spot. Is
(21:29):
it time for the blow Hards? Listeners are the around
the NFL podcast? UM are surely aware that a few
years back, Mark Sessler colleague UM fell fell hard for
David Blow and UM formed a fan club called the
blow Hards. And I have since signed up with the
(21:50):
blow Hards. I know you're a member, card carrying member
of the blow Hards, of course, So this was kind
of a bitter sweet episode from that standpoint. A tough blow,
if you will. For for the blow hards, it was
it was tough to see his wife Melissa watching the
game and the stands, and it was not a great
(22:13):
game for him. The play by play said, especially well
with me when he said I can't remember who was
calling the game, but Blow is running out of time.
It hit a little different, you know, like you could
take that a lot of different ways. He kind of
is running out of time. He for people you know
a little behind the scenes. I mean, listen, Jared starting quarterback,
(22:34):
but Tim Boyle and David Blower and the in the
battle for the backup duties, and this is this has
always been traditionally really fertile ground for hard knocks, the
backup quarterback role. So I do want to I want
to see the other side of I want to get
some boil uh in the in the future episodes to
get that side of things. But I do like Blow.
(22:55):
I like that he was involved. I like meeting his
Olympian wife. But it is the bitter sweet aspect of
a Connie is how we had all the build up
and he's going to her training and we're seeing the
rooting uh in the from the team headquarters a year
earlier when she was qualifying for the Olympics, and then
(23:15):
for the preseason game to have a hideous botch snap
in the fourth quarter, and then the fourth quarter rally
goes nowhere, the blow hards are, you know, not feeling
too hot, and we're worried about his job prospects to
hold onto this gig. Sure, but hopefully there's a redemption
story right around the corner, because that has been the
(23:36):
blow hards calling card um with him, so we'll say
maybe he can recreate. Wasn't a Thanksgiving that he had
that amazing game and we have like one. Really it
was Thanksgiving. Another highlight for me was Barry Sanders being
a big fan of the field conditions. I mean, he
just was going on and on about the grass. You know, listen,
(23:57):
if you're old enough to remember Barry Sanders, and I was,
I was a high school kid when he was the
greatest running back on the planet, Listen. Emma Smith might
have been the most decorated or that have the most yards,
but the best running back in the nineties and maybe
the best running back ever in the non Jim Brown
category to me might be Barry Sanders. That's how amazing
(24:18):
he was and special. And Barry is not, to me
the most charismatic individual when I see when he's interviewed,
he doesn't always jump off the page. And I you
almost could sense the hard knocks wanted to give him
a little more juice in this episode, but it just
didn't say anything that interesting on the sideline other than man,
this grass iss sure is green? I mean, listen, he
(24:42):
loved it, though I did enjoy the flashback to where
he had the massive shoulder pads, like with the dead
grass supporting as a quick as side. It is incredible
how far the teams and the league itself has come
in terms of field preparation and maintaining and in general
just putting in the players in the best position to
(25:04):
be healthy and successful. Uh. That was only and it
looked like they were playing on a sand lot in
Brooklyn in nineteen fifty. It was like, what are we
what are we doing here? But luckily Barry never suffered
an injury on that type of turf. Um. You know,
since you bring it up, two things Number one, um,
(25:25):
I once covered the first Super Bowl ever covered with
Super Bowl forty six in Indianapolis. Giants Patriots too and
me and Mark it was both our first Super Bowl
UH coverage experience together. And our boss at the time,
Justin um, put us to work and it was fine.
We were young and hungry and we wanted it. We
ended up both working like seventy five or eighty hours
(25:47):
that week. When we turned to the time card, it
was like a minor disaster back in the home office
when we turned in the card. But you get up
to that number because of things like on Saturday before
the Super Bowl, I was sent to cover the celebrity
flag football game at the minor league field in Indianapolis,
which was wild. Uh Snoop was the captain of one team.
(26:07):
I believe Maria Minutos was the standout on the other team.
And the only thing I can tell you is that
it was a mix of UM stars, stars and and
retired athletes and Barry Sanders. I'll never forget being completely
kind of out of the game plan. Like Barry Sanders
(26:30):
was on one of the teams in this flag football
contest and they rarely used him. I'll never forget that,
just seeing Barry wandering around the field not getting the
ball and who put this together? Whose fault was that?
I don't know, and then also on the Barry Sanders tip,
Yes it is time now for our Leef Schreiber quote
of the week with our Leef Schreiber stand in the
(26:53):
great Jason Zumwalt take it away, Jay Detroit Icon Barry Sanders,
is this straight up legend ironic because straight lines were
never his move? Two for two so good, He's so
good at this they could just pay some wall to
(27:13):
do it. Yeah, well, probably be cheaper, all right. What
other takeaways Connie as we get uh closer to the
picks for episodes, Yes, I just have like, uh two
other little things, you know how I I think the
greatest compliment that anyone can give is calling someone a bastard,
because that's what I have named our a t N
(27:36):
text change of bastards. Like, when someone is a bastard,
they are someone who can joke around and they can
kind of like trash each other in a fun way.
And I feel like we saw that a lot throughout
this episode with Douce Daley telling guys to study because
they're not getting dates for their looks. Dan Campbell getting
(27:57):
on T. J. Hockenson about his short that looked like
his wives have shorts that looked like that they were
very short. I mean that was that was one of
the highlights for me. But I think that that is
sort of a recurring theme that there are some some
pretty big bustards on this team. Yeah, that's good starts. UM.
(28:18):
Always good to have a few of those. Are a
bunch of those. UM. I had a question about hutch
hutch did the MJ sack celebration or a tackle? He
had a tackle for loss in the preseason game, um,
and it was Michael Jackson impersonation. I don't know, because
I don't follow the game college game closely. Was that
directly because of the Billy Jean moment from episode one
(28:41):
or was that something he's done previous in his career.
I assumed that it was because of episode one, and
I think at one point even his mom says that
she had texted him about it earlier in the day
like that. So I think that they're just trying to
like build the brand a little bit. It's like they
have the Hut clothing line. They're trying to build that
brand and aid Hutchinson was also rehearsing the handshake that
(29:05):
he was going to do. I guess it's like a
handshakes handshakes celebration, like when he was tapping someone up.
They were rehearsing it on the side earlier in the episode,
so I thought that was kind of cute. It was
it was is there anything else we want to hit
before we get to our m v P votes using
voting system. The only thing I was thinking was in
(29:26):
the recap, like last time on Hard Knocks, they replayed
Jamal Williams and his speech and when he said if
you're going to piss like a puppy, stay on the
porch and let the big dogs eat. In the moment,
I really wasn't sure what the hell he was talking about,
but when they replayed it, I figured it out. I
finally realized, Oh, I guess he means the puppies are
(29:48):
scared and that's why they're pissing on the porch. But
it's still a little unclear. I guess that's in connect
with you. It didn't connect with me because I've never
had puppies pissing on the porch before. I've never had
a porch, So yeah, I guess the big dogs eating
and the puppies pissing, I got like a little confused
in the metaphors. Okay, well you eventually landed it, so
(30:08):
everything everything's fine. Plotline predictions for episode three I got, okay,
we need and you could feel it the Hard Knocks
producers like, Okay, we need to get into Jared Goff
at some point? Is it if we wait till episode four?
That feels too long? We can't push it an episode
five because that's just almost disrespect got the time before
(30:31):
gone right, So it's like, I feel like episode three
is going to be a neat little spot for him. Um,
we're still waiting, as I mentioned last week, for a
visit downtown that pays homage to the Detroit music scene,
you know, soul, blues, hip hop, garage rock. You know,
we get a Jack White visit, his visits Lions Practice.
You know, these are all things that could be that.
(30:53):
And uh, one last prediction is you you mentioned Jamal
Williams and his dog metaphors, Um, bring him back? I
mean I was saying before the show to grave digression
and who's an example of a running back who whenever
he gets a chance, shines and then all of a
sudden he goes into hibernation. The coach puts him in
(31:14):
Mothballs Tony Pollard. Great job by Grave Digger there with
the cowboys. That's what it felt like for episode two.
It's like Jammal Williams just blew up the world and
then all we get from him is an episode closing
Uh dad joke about James Bond. I need more Jamal
Williams in episode three, bubb seven, it was so good
(31:34):
James Bond taking a bath Bubbalo seven. Let's listen to
the joke in case you didn't hear the joke. What
s alright, It's time for episode MVP voting again. Vector
voting scale, first, second, and third place votes all carried
different H point totals that are weighted. At the end
(31:55):
of the fifth episode the finale on September six, we
will reveal uh through addition just simple math, that Grave
Digger will handle um who is indeed the Hard Knocks
m VP for who is your first place? Wait? Dan,
can I stop you right there? Yeah? What if we
count up from third second first? A little more drama
(32:17):
on the reveal? You know, what good job are you?
It was actually running through my head. Should we do
it that way? I went the other way? But now
that you're coming in. That's good producer work, and that's
Justin Graver. Who is your third place vote for m
VP of episode two. I'm gonna go with Deuce Daley.
He's been a favorite of mine from the jump. Last
(32:38):
week he was my second place vote, so this week
I didn't want to go second place again with Deuce,
so I'm gonna knock him down to three. All Right,
I have and that's a good vote. We're going to
hear more about Deuce in a minute. Third place, I
have Dan Campbell. Obviously this wasn't Campbell's episode one coming
out party, but he had two lines that I love. First,
(32:59):
the a form mentioned uh chance encounter with Hockinson his
tight end that led to this commentary on his shorts
really accentuate. And then uh Devin Funches, who you may
remember once upon a time being a panther's wide receiver
(33:20):
of note. Now he's looking to catch on and make
a splash with the Lions. He makes a nice catch
in the back of the end zone, and I believe
it was a tim Boil throw and Campbell, I think,
kind of into his headset, but also to no one
in particular have this to say funches bunches of votes.
All right, I love that one that gets him, that
(33:40):
gets him on the metal stand. Who's your second place?
Second place is m On raw St Brown's dad, John Brown,
John Brown, Are you serious? John Brown? Don't call him
John st Brown because he's not. Yeah, he's it's gotta be.
I mean the old footage of him as Mr Universe
(34:03):
and then all of the stuff with him in the
weight room with them now, I mean, it was just perfect.
I also like, um, you know, as a dad, and
I just got back from Legoland um today this morning
in fact, and I'm just like, I mean, the eight
year old, we're just starting to bump heads a little
bit because he just won't listen to me as much anymore.
So you know, we're starting to you know, do that thing,
(34:25):
do that dance, that part of fatherhood and you got
a freedom red meat three times a day. That's it.
I like this line. I could I could empathize with
this line from John Brown where he's like, you know,
people should listen to me. I know I'm a father
and I'm freaking Mr Universe two times. I know what
I'm Yes, Maybe he just want at once. M hmmm.
(34:50):
I love how many times do you think he reminds
people about that? And that's so awesome. I love it.
I think John Brown is a reality If it was
two thousand and eight, he would have a reality a
show on TLC. Off this. I mean, maybe there's still time. Yeah,
all right, so we both have John. But I don't know.
I thought about is that throwing away a vote? Because
you know John Brown? Is he gonna keep popping up?
(35:12):
But we don't know. Maybe you will. I hope he's
exactly that's I had no problem with that. A second place,
I bet. I know we're going to have the same
first place now. I don't think so. In fact, I
know we won't. Who's your first place? WHOA I'm going
with Rodrigo. I feel like he had such a big
part of I mean, he was just such a big
(35:33):
part of like that whole speech when Kelvin Sheppard was
ripping everybody apart. He was kind of a star practice. Uh,
you've got Rodrigo talking about it's a great time get
to be hit in practice and hitting people. I don't know.
That was He's my he's my underdog that I'm rooting for,
and so I had to give him my first place vote.
(35:53):
I totally see where you're coming from that. I you know,
the reason why he didn't get a vote for me
is because I thought the storyline around him is interesting,
but I didn't think he personally did enough to get
the gold or or metal for me. So I'm happy
that he's thriving, but I need to see more for
him to get on the metal stand. I gave it
(36:14):
to de Staley. I think that I love Dues how
he's acing what is essentially an audition for the thirty
one other teams as a head coach, and that's what
these that's what this show can be UM for an
assistant coach, And I don't think there's anything I think
he's being himself. I think he's being real. I loved
(36:35):
that uh that whole interlude with uh DeAndre Swift. I
just thought that was that's a good coach. That's a
guy that is using his experience UH to see the
that Swift is a special player. The way he talked
about him to the coaches, the way he spoke directly
UH too Swift in the meeting right after that, And
(36:56):
it did remind me of the so always stuck with
me UM on all or nothing. The all or nothing
season with the Arizona Cardinals. Uh, there's an end of
season meeting, private meeting between the running backs coach of
that team named Stump Mitchell and a young David Johnson,
and Stump Mitchell says kind of the same thing or
(37:18):
something similar uh to what do said to DeAndre Swift,
which is, listen, you could be really special. You could
be as good as anybody in the league right now
if you just keep up what you're doing. That was
more like you're doing everything great, just keep doing it.
Does clearly thinks that Swift needs to be pushed, and
I think, um, Swift, I don't know if he does
(37:40):
make the leap in year three, but I think he
has the right coach to do it. So I think
Deuce back to back episodes has been really uh fun
to watch and just seems like the type exact type
of guy you as a head coach you want underneath
you as an assistant coach. I've been slow playing my
Doucet Dailey love a little bit because i have just
(38:01):
like always loved him so much, and I'm I've been
worried watching this that I'm a little biased because of
his past with the Eagles and everything else. But now
you're just confirming that everything I'm thinking is right. So yeah,
the Deuce Daley love is real. No, the Deuce Staley
train is rolling. And and a special mention to my
guy Aaron Glenn, who I do. I think he's coming
(38:23):
off very well in this show as well. And if
that defense gets a lot better this year, and it could, um,
I think his name is going to come up for
head coaching jobs come January. Uh. Just the guy that
obviously commands respect and knows his ball. All right. Now,
before we say goodbye, a couple of things, Connie, we
gave Grave Digger a lot of work. I feel like
(38:43):
our producer in episode one, I think we had asked him,
uh swag. We asked for Detroit pizza at some point. Yeah,
there might have been a third request that I'm not
recalling out the time. Where are we with the request?
So where are we? Producer? Justin after one week we
(39:06):
have merch has arrived. Hey, this is great. I'm gonna
come in the studio to present it to Dan and
then we can hold up your so you can see it,
because we'll go to you when you're back in town.
I'll be in studio next week. Perfect. I have a
lead on Detroit style pizza, So maybe next week in
studio we'll eat a little bit. Maybe that's a finale thing.
(39:28):
Maybe it is. But if you got to leave, that's
great news. And then the third request I will have
to double check on because I also don't remember what
it was. Um, great, all right here it comes justin
with the shirts we got the merch Yes we got.
And that's not what's a varsity jacket looking? Oh, Connie,
(39:50):
it is NFL films on the front. It's clearly as
Connie's shirt. This would be it's a cruise shirt. Yeah,
T shirt, hard box. True, that's beautiful. Thank you to
Ken Rodgers and the very good. Um, we'll wear that
with pride. Listen, where does that's great? Integrity doesn't isn't
(40:12):
a thing on the Hard Knocks podcast. Now, we're proud
of this, this whole operation and the product, and we're
just promoting it absolutely special shout out to Chris Wong
for sending those to us. Chris, Thanks Chris, We love you.
Um all right now, we'll be back next week episode three.
Make sure you tune it for that and especial I'm
(40:32):
I'm especially excited for this one, Connie, because you're gonna
be in studio with me, and we're gonna really we're
gonna chop up episode three, you know, real quick. I
hope that there's some more cars involved. I know that
that's like another thing with Detroit, and I thought there
would be more cars, like I noticed that they incorporated
some of the guys using like big tires and then
(40:52):
with smash cut to like an old car type thing
to make that Detroit theme go. But I'm hoping there's
more coming up that. You also reminded me of David
blow and his uh hype speech on the last drive
when they're trying to run out the clock and I
don't know if anybody's listening to him, but he's in
the hud only is like, listen, this city. You know
(41:13):
they like it tough. They you know, they want us
to grind this out, and and we're gonna show the
city that we're tough like them. And then like a snap,
fires off his hands again. Bitter sweet day for the
blow hearts. But there's always next week on Hard. I
hope this time next week, Connie, we are talking positively
(41:33):
about David blow having a big week two preseason. But
we'll have to wait. Well, I'll bring the rope all right,
Thank you everybody for listening. Here he comes, David Rob.
Do you think David just walks around the house this plank?
I hope he wakes up and it starts playing. Its
like he just turns it on and his wife's like,
(41:53):
turn it off. He's making coffee with it all. No, no, non,
turn it off? Alright until next week. See
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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