Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Baker Extension Talks, Tom’s Temper Tantrum, and NFC Frontrunners Show Themselves

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Geoff and Gabe are back for the second half of this weeks’ NFL coverage, starting with the Raiders’ win over the Browns on Monday night, a game that somehow still matters for playoff seeding in a ridiculously tight AFC. Plus, Gabe is sick and tired of Tom Brady being a sore loser, and Geoff thinks the Packers will take their playoff bye week and march right into the Super Bowl.On Moving the Line, Gabe asks whether Frank Reich really believes what he says about Wentz  to the media, and Geoff explains why NFL players would rather take a hit to the head than the knee. Also, Geoff and Gabe compare Jewish and Christian holidays, and Geoff takes parenting advice from Shaq.Leave a rating and follow the pod if you enjoyed the episode, and leave a comment for a chance to be featured in a listener mailbag segment at the end of the season. Happy holidays everyone!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday december 21st i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe gill and this jeff schwartz this morning you're powered by the varsity podcast network we had two minor football games an entire slate of sunday football as well and as we watch the minor football game the late game kirk cousins throw an incredible arm punt justin fields is fumbling what a cluster of a couple games but gabe we have to talk about it it is the nfl a team tonight, and we'll get to them in a second, that could be a top of division or be 13th in the AFC Conference. That's how tight these races are as we head down the stretch. Lots to talk about. And where do you want to start? I think I got to start with the team that, you know, ever since I've known you, you've given a lot of air to the Cleveland Browns. Yes. And you got a lot of people in the, you know, lake regions who absolutely hate you and think no matter what happens, you're going to crap on them. Well, they've had a very bad Monday.

Tuesday's going to be a lot of doomsday talk in Cleveland. They've come through a week of COVID hell. Their starting quarterback couldn't play. Nick Mullins did his job, but they came up short because Derek Carr, Mr. Clutch himself, beat him. I say season over in Cleveland, maybe Baker era over in Cleveland, but people are getting that wrong. So the Browns did lose tonight.

They're the team that could have been in first place in the AFC North. Instead, they're 13th in the AFC Conference right now. That is how margins are so small at the moment. They lost with Nick Mullins, their third-string quarterback. They lost with not a single offense. No, sorry. One offensive lineman, the right guard starting in the position he's intended to play in, and other players out as well.

The Raiders were healthier. And the Raiders are up 13-0. Blue Elite came back with a late field goal. I do feel bad for the Browns game because they would have won this game with a healthy roster, even just like a sort of healthy roster, and they didn't have it. In a race for the AFC North,

every win's going to matter down the stretch. They're all within one game. The entire AFC North is within one game of each other right now. They all play each other, so they'll all be set on the field. But I do feel bad for the Browns because I think they were moving in the right direction. This is an opponent they should have been at home. They would have been three, four, five-point favorites

at Baker Mayfield play. Now, on a short week, they have to go from playing Monday night, Saturday, in Green Bay on Christmas. You're not winning that game. And then you have to beat the Steelers and the Bengals to get to nine wins. It's not enough to win the division, probably. And COVID just kind of bit him in the ass. And it's going to bite a lot of teams in the ass as we continue to go down the stretch.

But this is why, you know, winning games at any point in the season is very important because you get a little buffer at the end of the season, right? We always talk about, what does it matter if you win in week one and two? Because we talk about being hot down the stretch. Yes, playing well now is good. But if you win or earn this season, Colts, don't start two and four, you'll have to worry about as many losses down the stretch because you've already built in that buffer to get you where you want to go, and the Browns just don't

have that right now. No, they sure don't. And I'm going to say their final three games of the year, even with a healthy roster, even with the, not being such short turnarounds, I think are two out of three are L's. They either beat Pittsburgh or Cincy, maybe, but they're not beating. I think they go in three down the stretch. And so I have to just move the whole conversation forward. And I suspect all the take makers this week will. As much as people are going to be upset with well a lot of things and blame baker for plenty i think that they'd be wrong to put too much of this season's crap on baker and i think that the browns would be wrong to carry that into the decision about whether he's their guy for the future i don't know if they think they can draft someone better than him. They're not going to find some other guy out there who's better than him.

And at his best, he has been very, very good. So if I'm the Browns, I just I'm calling none of this season mattered. And I'm making my decision for the future based on what I think I've seen in pockets. Well, that's a that's a bold way to look at it. He's not he's been good sometimes. That's a bold way to look at it. He's been good sometimes. He's a very schemed-up quarterback along the same lines of like Goff and Jimmy G, right?

He's played the Shanahan offense. Just named two guys and went to Super Bowl. I did. You're exactly right. But look what's happening with them now, right? Now, Jimmy G's playing on a better team than obviously Goff is with the Lions. The thing that Browns are going to have to deal with is this. Baker Mayfield is the best quarterback they've had in 30 years.

Are you moving on from that guy to draft an unknown? I made the argument, if you recall, Gabe, last year, not a very popular argument, that Browns should have traded up in the draft and drafted a quarterback this year and not have to deal with this. Instead, they drafted a corner and Newsom's fine. I'm not saying they drafted the wrong player,

but that would have solved a lot of these problems. Baker Mayfield getting hurt this year hasn't helped the evaluation. They have a very talented roster, but if they pay Baker Mayfield market value, they can't do it.

They can't pay him $40 million a year. Will he accept 30? Why would you, right? Cousins is playing right now. Cousins makes $40 million a year will he accept 30 why would you right cousins is playing right now cousins makes 40 million dollars a year guaranteed because they'll find someone to pay you it might not be the team you want to be on so they're in a very tough I don't think he's good enough to lead you to a Super Bowl and if he is like the Niners Rams, everything else kind of goes right that year as well. He's not a guy that's going to lead you in down times to a lot of victories. I mean, there was talk tonight when Nick Mullen scrambled on fourth down to have the go-ahead touchdown.

There were Browns fans on Twitter being like, I'm not sure Baker Mayfield makes that play. That's how little the people that watch him play each week believe in Baker Mayfield. Okay. The people that watch him play each week believe in Baker Mayfield. Okay, I mean, you don't really want to be getting compared unfavorably to a third string quarterback who nobody wanted to ever see play. But I also think Browns fans are particularly reactionary. They remind me of Jets fans. It's just freak out after freak out after freak out.

And when one thing goes right, they immediately think Super Bowl. But they're ready to blow it up, you know, with one bad quarter. I'm just saying chill, everybody. Baker, at his best, is a franchise quarterback in this league. And I'm not sure we've had too many chances to see him at his best. This is an all-time weird year. And we do agree, right, that this team did a good job of building a roster. They have a front office that seems pretty smart.

Yes. It seems like they're putting good players out there. Which is why I don't know how you can have a smart roster and smart business makers and then also go and sign Beckham Mayfield to an obscenely large deal. All right. Well, like you, like you, like you have to convince him i just think to take less

and that's going to be hard to do i mean brady's done that i guess everyone always brags about brady doing that it just feels it just feels very very difficult to see them paying him like 40 million a year and then continue to have the success because what happens you pay a quarterback that you just can't pay other players that right you can't afford to have this entire stacked roster and then when the roster is not as good is your quarterback is good to lead your team to wins well all right so one team that very famously got this whole equation right are the chiefs i was going to call them your Chiefs, but I don't want to go quite that far. The Chiefs, of course, drafted the right guy, started to build what looks like a dynasty around him, and then got all the right pieces in place before they paid him all the money.

Yeah. And nobody questioned whether he was worth the money. But the Chiefs have some real short-term problems right now. So just in the last 24 hours since we recorded an earlier show, they go from coasting to now dealing with a little bit of a covet outbreak of their own most notably travis kelsey who may because of these very recently changed rules may actually be able to play in their next game but that's sort of the essence of what i want to bring up jeff with a little more hindsight and seeing this bounce from team to team to team are we absolutely sure that this whole pretend we don't know what's going on don't test them policy or put them back out

there as soon as the symptoms calm down policy is a winner i'm not talking about people's health i'm talking about making sure we can have guys who can play well in this new policy kelsey i believe is vaccinated he can come back much sooner than he could previously I think the report is none of them were showing symptoms or the very mild symptoms something like that mild symptoms the mild symptoms go away tomorrow I think he could play by Sunday

so like I'm sure he'll be healthy enough to play the question is is he getting other people sick right but if they don't test then it doesn't matter from what is this from a pure from a I'm not saying it from a from just the sick. Right, but if they don't test, then it doesn't matter. What is this logic? From a pure... I'm not saying... We're pretending we're not talking about humans.

But also, he tested positive, right? Okay, if he's back in the facility on Saturday or Sunday, I think the viral load's enough to spread it. Okay, if he tests negative once, he's allowed back. By that point if he tests negative once he's allowed right back by that point i don't think i don't think he's spreading the virus doesn't seem it doesn't

i would hope that would not be someone who is spreading it so but if we're just not testing any of the other guys who may or may not have it right now that seems like a chance to spread it to all kinds of guys which seems like you might not have enough guys to play on the weekend. Again, I'm just thinking about this from like what we saw with the Browns. Yeah, you certainly might not. Fair. But I think that, I think because again, this gives kind of more ammunition to be vaccinated. Right?

Like this is another reason to be vaccinated. Sure. Sure. If Travis Kelsey can go this weekend after getting testing positive early this week, I think that's got to be a pretty great case for people to say, I wasn't so sure about this vaccine, but damn,

it gets me back on the field without even missing a game. All right, here goes. Like I, that seems like for, for whatever people's hesitancy was in the league, that seems like enough to get you over the edge. A few guys will never do it we know that but the guys who were like i'm not sure and some of them so bosa so bosa got um has covet not vaccinated out for 10 days like

it's still a problem for teams i mean what if this is the game now they're playing the texas i believe they all need him what was a more important game what if this is the game? Now they're playing the Texas, I believe. They all need him. What if it was a more important game? What if he still shows symptoms a little while later? The vaccine, unvaccinated, again, it makes more sense for the NFL if you're vaccinated. Kelsey was vaccinated. I saw today Pat Mahomes

said he got his booster. Nick Saban said 90% of his team got the booster. They're trying to win a championship, everybody. Yeah, so maybe that's the argument. They're trying to win a championship, everybody. Yeah, so maybe that's the argument. Maybe it's just a football argument. We want you out there. Go get a shot.

All right, well, I think there's not much more to say on the Chiefs until we learn more about his availability. There's other players, Chris Jones, a few other guys who are notable players in the defense. Chris should be back though, right, because he's been in the protocol for – he missed last game obviously. Yeah. There are some guys who have been waiting it out. I'm just – Kelsey is the big name and it has – again, with this show, I always like to acknowledge.

It has huge fantasy implications for playoffs. That's going to matter to a lot of people whether he plays or he doesn't. But all right. I mean I just wanted to know if maybe with 24 hours to think on it and then this news, you changed your opinion. No, I think this is the best policy for just living with this.

I'm not saying it's best for health benefits or what the CDC would recommend or whatever else. But it feels like this is the best way to keep people healthy as much as possible, but also play football. And so I'm, I think that it also telling you again,

my thoughts only, right? I'm not, this is not, this is Jeff Schwartz thoughts. I'm not, this is not what anyone else has said, but I think this makes sense that it just, It also telling you, again, my thoughts only, right? This is Jeff Schwartz's thoughts. This is not what anyone else has said. But I think this makes sense that just the belief of the scientific community as a new variant is easily transmittable.

We know that, but just not as dangerous, right? So if you have the new variant, which seems to be what everyone has now, it's not as dangerous. So so therefore we're okay with you coming back to work sooner than we were previously if it's just not gonna and again i mean you know healthy athlete probably not going to get that sick from covid we have seen some instances where players have gotten myocarditis and and players have mentioned they've been sicker than they thought of had using inhalers it's not like it's been nothing wrong with these elite athletes. But maybe, Gabe, this variant, again, spreads quicker but not as dangerous. The NFL is like, look, once you're kind of, quote, unquote, past it, just come back and play. Yep.

All right, last question on this. You have been really good at opening my eyes and reminding me that players are just guys. They go home, in many cases, to a family of people with jobs, kids who are in school, you've got grandparents around, you've got people who might work in your home, a nanny or somebody who helps clean the house or whoever you run a little business on the side for in some cases with players. So I can I think about this all the time, the logistical challenges, forget the health for a moment. That's the most serious concern.

But the logistical challenges of testing positive and then having to quarantine or keep all those people out of your way, isn't all that going to lead to distractions that make it very, very hard to perform in any given week? Like, isn't just living in that world a problem? It is.

God, I've thought about, God, if I had to quarantine for two weeks, I'd lose my mind. I don't even know how it would work. The whole house would about god if i had to quarantine for two weeks i'd lose my mind i don't know how it would work you just the whole house would just have to stay home with me for two weeks it's like no way i'm just staying in a room for two weeks sorry it's not happening sorry um be very very or seven days yeah look when you when you play in the n, your family takes on the burden of that job with you. And if it requires you to be quarantined for five days, then your family will figure it out. They'll go in a different room. They'll go to a hotel room. They'll do what they have to do. I think I saw last year, and don't quote me on this, but I think I saw that

Pat Mahomes' fiance said they're sleeping in separate rooms. I've seen other wives on TikTok or Instagram say, hey, I'm sleeping in a different room than my husband. Now, look, if you're eating together, if you're spending time on the couch together, does it matter if you're sleeping in different rooms? No, no. But I mean, there's a thought process of trying to make it to where you're not the reason why they get COVID, right? And there is a burden here on the families. I said this from the start. To make sure that you don't bring it into the house as well. And again, it's not your fault if you do it.

But, you know, just try not to be the catalyst, right? Right, yeah yeah of course so families i think do take on this burden of having you know this responsibility and it's even greater now with this variant spreading wildly yeah all right well i i do i hope that people listen to this show and feel like they've gotten to know you and they've been enlightened to the fact that like, no matter how pissed you are at your quarterback when he loses and you know, things go wrong, your fantasy team gets screwed up. Like most of these dudes are just dudes and, uh, and they're just living a life with the same family crap. And so I'm, I'm glad you can sort of shed light on that every few weeks.

Um, here's a guy who's not just a dude. Uh, and, and I don't, I choose not to think of him as just a dude, Tom Brady, what a dumpster fire of weekend for him. And boy, that was nice. Uh, he looked like crap without his normal roster of pro bowlers playing their asses off around him. And then of course he did what he always does when things don't go his way. He pouted about it very publicly. You know, it was the first time he got shut out in 15 years, and he did not take it well. So first, he ran over to a Saints coach and told him to go F himself. And then he smashed a Microsoft Surface to pieces and threw it for everyone to see. He's always kind of cold and a jerk after a loss to the media, so nothing new there. But as many people have put it, good winner, bad loser. Jeff, here's an honest question. The Saints don't look afraid of

him. They talk crap right in his face. No names are talking shit to him on the field and on Twitter. Is that the approach? Just don't be afraid of this guy. Just rub it right in his face and maybe just maybe you can beat him. The Saints just have his number. I don't know if talking shit to him works because plenty of players have tried to do it before and it didn't work in the playoffs last year. I heard the telecast last night. It was like, you know what, guys? Everyone's going to read and study this game plan

and try to do it. Yeah, I know shit they are, but whatever the Saints like, their defensive line plays better against the – and Tampa Bay has a really good offensive line against their offensive line. Cam Jordan was fantastic at 100 sacks now, 100 sacks now. There's just something about the way the Saints play defense that the Bucs can't count.

And now Gowan's out for the season with a torn ACL. It was not a good night for the Bucs. But I'm not off their bandwagon because they have one bad night like people are going to do this right they're going to be oh no they're done we count them out last year too guys

let's not do that right now the Godwin injury's bad but Antonio Brown's coming back and I actually appreciate Bruce Aarons being like yeah he's coming back he deserved this sentence he's coming back like I'm not going to

he didn't bullshit us and make up some thing oh he's he's repented and he's learned his lesson. No, no, he's coming back to help us win. That's why we have him back. I just, I like, I like that Tom Brady shows some personality. And if it's personality of going and cussing out the same sideline, so be it.

Like he did, throwing a tablet. I mean, okay, he's a good winner or a bad loser. I'll take that any time on my team i root for pat mahomes ran over to the charger sideline and taunted them after the game good for pat show emotion i love it but the the what no i'm sure go ahead man i'm not one to knock pat mahomes but like what are these taunting rules then? Tom Brady can tell coaches to go off. He can go out of his way to go tell. I don't think he's, I don't see people said he said he'd go after yourself. He didn't say that. There was no way he said that. I don't know what he said. I kind of want to know what he said. He's mic'd up. I want to know. Yeah. It's like,

we're ever going to hear that they've been covering up his mess for two decades. You think we're going to start to suddenly one day actually hear the truth about Tom Brady? two decades. You think we're going to start to suddenly one day actually hear the truth about Tom Brady? No chance. It seemed Bush league, dude. That's all I'm saying. You know, he just doesn't know how to lose with grace. He only, he's only willing to lose to like Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. Like that's it. You have to be at his level in his mind or you don't deserve his respect. Well, he did go shake everyone's hand after the game, thankfully. Oh, you see, you're doing this. You're like triggering me to trigger you.

I know this shaking hands thing is the thing you like to rant about. Who cares? I'm saying he doesn't treat his opponent with respect unless he thinks they're at his level. That's a weird way to behave. Yeah. I get that. yeah i'm i get that but i i don't like if you listen to this podcast enough like i just don't have any shits to give about some of this like stuff people care about with how quarterbacks act on the field or how the taunt how you taunt

too much or like i just i don't care i'd rather my quarterback be fiery and be passionate and yeah he hates losing who cares he doesn't respect other opponents whatever win me a championship maybe because i never won a championship i feel differently maybe if i had won one with a classy quarterback eli manning uh maybe i feel differently but i never won a championship game but i'm desperate to have one i'm not going to do it. Obviously, I haven't played in five years. I'm retired. And no one's signing me. But if my quarterback's a little bit of a dick, but I win a Super Bowl, so be it.

Okay. So if Baker Mayfield throws a hissy fit and smashes the surface because he threw a pick, we're good with that? We're just like, yeah, he's fiery. I like it. I don't know. I haven't ever said anything about that with any quarterback before no i'm not calling you a hypocrite i just do think that he gets a very different standard and that is what people are reacting to that's why i don't like to be

with the people with the easy take but i this easy take i agree with like it's just bush league it's it sucks just learn to lose man you know you like 10% of the time in your career. I know, right? Yeah. I don't know. I just don't. It doesn't. It just doesn't bother me, man.

I don't know why. It just doesn't. Okay. And I actually kind of giggle at it. Like I like, I liked it. I feel like he knows when he throws that shit, it's going to be talked about. No. See, I think it's more like, like a child.

Like he can't control it i don't i think he knows he's gonna have to deal with it he's not clueless i just think in the moment it's impulsive and he's just like this i have to let this out look i i act this way too i'm not i'm not perfect lots of people do this i just think that he should be self-aware enough to realize like oh yeah i'm kind of like kind of an entitled jerk sometimes you know uh yeah i mean i i'm but but i but i think that they also and i've said this before he owns being who he is though like i don't think he pretends like yeah when he throws it he knows he's gonna be a kid caught throwing it i don't think he

thinks that in the moment but he knows he knows he does is going to be looked at. But I think he strongly knows who he is though, which I think is impressive as a human. No, you don't think he knows who he is? No, I don't. But then we're going to go down a whole other rabbit hole and it really doesn't matter what I think, to be honest. Here, let me ask you, we'll just use Tom Brady, whoady who now you know we were just about getting to the place where we were handing him an mvp where i was begrudgingly admitting he's probably marching right back to the super bowl and then this weekend happened um the rogers is now the mvp favorite whether these narratives make sense or not the packers look a little bit better than the bucks the cardinals are definitely fading we're going to get a look at the Rams.

I don't know really. You know, every few weeks we say, who's the best team in the NFC? So who's the best team in the NFC? It's kind of confusing. Well, it probably is the Packers right now. And the Packers are going to get healthier. They get players back. So, and there's a calmness with the way Rodgers is playing this year.

And they played with this last year too. They also just win a ton of football games. Like they're the, the, the, the, they almost lost this past weekend, but,

and it's going to happen in a failure, playing a road game. You probably thought to yourself, Oh, there's 85 Ravens out. We can kind of go. They're up 31, 17 at one point too,

in the fourth quarter. Right. It just, it didn't happen. Um, but they're probably getting the one seat there. As Hank notes, Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit on the way out. Cleveland's actually next week, and then Minnesota, and then Detroit.

And they're likely just to win out and have the one seed. At some point, they've got to win one of these championship games, right? They've lost the last two. They've got Jair Alexander back. They've got David Bogdaniari back. This is the best defense they've had in a couple years now, which is very helpful for Rodgers as well. They're running the football with both the running backs.

Just got to stay healthy wide receiver. They feel like the best team. I would say the Bucs, but again, without Godwin there, who's very important to them, they're injured in the secondary. It's the Bucs or the Packers to me. It's easily those two teams. People will make a case for the Niners. I don't know. I mean, they're playing well, but they're a hot team at Rams. Stafford, Gabe,

Stafford has never played in a big playoff game. He's played in one in his career. I kind of need to see it first before I'm like, you know what? The Rams are going to win the NFC. Cardinals are not going to do it. So it's Packers or Bucks. It's that simple. I can't talk you off any of that. I really can't. I'd love to try. I think it's almost guaranteed. It's one of those two teams. Barring some major injury to one of the quarterbacks, I think both of them can withstand almost anything else. How much of my children in the background can you hear? They're turning into Tom Brady after a loss. Look, it's late night on the West Coast for you. I get it. It's witching hour, right? It's witching hour, but really they're starting to sound like they just threw a pick

against the Saints and they don't know how to control their temper. So when it becomes too much of a distraction, you have to tell me. No, dude just tune out i mean i get two kids too i tune out okay uh well speaking of tuning out why don't we give people a break maybe my kids will shut up in the break uh we'll come back we'll move the line that's our little over under game we got a few more teams and topics to talk about uh so let's uh take a quick reset. We'll be right back. All right, Jeff, we're back. It's time to move the line a little over under game we play. Okay, here we go. After the Colts went over the pats, Frank Reich said, quote, I have zero worries about the passing production today. Okay. Over under 99% chance, even he knows that is complete and total BS.

Yes, he knows that's complete and total BS, but he has to back his quarterback. Carson Wentz was awful. He was bad. He was not good. He's the reason why they're not going to go far in the playoffs. He's taking a great roster that's been built up and it's not going to do anything because of him. But he has to say that of course, right? He's got to say that there's, there's no,

there's nothing. He's got to defend his quarterback. And they won, and they won by the way. But why, so why the decision do like coaches, the conventional wisdom is you get his back. And then every now and then somebody bucks convention and like craps on their quarterback

like Tom Brady, Bruce Arians, who will say, yeah, it was Tom's fault. He shouldn't have thrown the pick in that, you know, he threw the wrong guy. Carson Wentz can't handle that?

He can't handle a little criticism? He couldn't handle the Eagles, just the thought of the Eagles drafting the quarterback. No, he can't handle criticism. So what's the problem? Like he's got the job. They wanted him there.

What does it matter? He was five for 12. They wanted him in Philly too, but he couldn't handle criticism. So what's the problem? He's got the job. They wanted him there. What does it matter? He was 5 for 12. They wanted him in Philly too, but he couldn't handle it because any time someone challenges him, some guys aren't built that way, man. Okay. Well, I mean, maybe he's just physically built the right way. That's why he's not going to win anything for them.

All right. Well, he's just going to keep on being in this league and keep on being some mid-round fantasy draft pick. And the guy who picks him is always going to have high hopes that he's getting that Eagles season again. It ain't going to happen. All right. Bill Belichick apologized for being rude to reporters after the loss to the Colts. Who knew he could even say those words? I'm sorry. Over under 5% chance Tom Brady apologizes to C.D. Deuce uh the guy i mentioned earlier who i mean picked

him off and then tom crapped all over him and then cd went on twitter and made fun of tom there's a whole feud that probably tom is completely unaware of will he apologize to him to the saints coaches no chance bill gates for wrecking his surface will we ever hear I'm sorry from Brady? Oh, never, never from Tom Brady. Zero percent chance. Yeah, zero percent chance. I mean, we sort of covered him and his foul moods earlier, so I don't think we need to beat this one to death. Let me ask you this about Tom Brady.

He said, I don't know if this is newsworthy or not. He said, paraphrasing, that he would rather take a hit to the head than a hit to the knee. And you were immediately to our group thread we're like yeah that makes sense how the hell does that make sense yeah so a lot of a lot of players feel this way um we saw god when i was to get hit low well a knee injury is a six nine twelve month injury right i mean in some points it makes you a worse player and some guys never come back from them and it cost you god was gonna be a free agent

cost him money if he gets a concussion i know i can't tell you the long-term effects i mean we know what they can be there's no guarantee he'd get the long-term effects but say he gets knocked out he misses two weeks comes back has a good play. Okay. He's making a bunch of his money. Not a problem. But now he's got a bum knee. The players don't look at it as like, how will I feel in 30 years? Think about now, the present. How to make as much money as possible now.

That's what they look at it. Plus, look, I think NFL players, of course, have an ego. They feel, and I know I felt this way as well invincible at times and none of us think we're gonna get any sort of brain injury when we're playing when we're done playing after we're playing none of us think that so i understand why why players they'd rather get their head rung than their knee cut out. I probably feel the same way too. All right. Well, that's why we have this show for you to make us a little smarter on how players really think. I I'd like to say that, that, that bums me out. That saddens me a little bit, but your explanation makes total sense. And what do I know? I mean, maybe I probably, if I could perform at that level, I would be just like you.

So I get it. It's just sort of sad to hear that. That's the mindset. I mean, I think because we've all seen again, like we've all seen what a knee injury can do, but in the immediate part of it, but not obviously what,

you know, the head trauma might show itself in 20 years. And guys just don't think about the future in those terms in the present. Yeah, I mean, I get it. I think, who wouldn't trade, you know, NFL glory, performing at the highest possible level, earning tons of money in the here and now? Who wouldn't trade that for, yeah, but I don't know what, you know, after 60 is going to look like to look like. You're not promised anything anyway in life. So I get it.

I see why people would just say, I want to make right now as good as possible. I'll deal with it later. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, speaking of a guy who's taking his shot, man, he's going for it when he's got it. According to a random person on Twitter, there's an Oregon football player coming to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl. And he is just out there searching Houston girls on Instagram and then just sliding into the DMs to show him around that parts in quotes. I guess this has been noted by some of those young women

and now been shared around. I have no way of knowing if this is true but it sounds true so jeff my question to you is over under 20 chance any of your teammates ever tried this move oh i mean we didn't have twitter at the sun bowl but if we had twitter or tinder 100 players would do it the best part is the the and the the the best part by the way is that uh uh she's not even in san antonio she's in houston amen and then she clarified later on that they asked her to drive from houston to san antonio to hang out with these guys so the the replies are great which people try to figure out who it is but shoot your shot man like what's worse she says no i mean i i guess i could think of worse things than that but yeah probably that's about it just says no she says what are you crazy

i don't know you i'm not coming oregon football what's that but hey uh it seems like this day and age you're taking a chance when you go for it but i say as long as you as long as you stay polite and you leave it at that when she says no, I guess what's the harm? Take your shot, buddy. Shoot your shot, right? What was the quote, the Michael Scott quote, right? You miss 100% of shots you don't take. I think that's right.

Yeah, that's Michael Scott. I just think that like we've probably – and I'm really not making a joke out of this. But I think we've seen too many headlines in the last few years where it really can go wrong when you carry on one of these relationships and start dming and create you know you end up in some uncomfortable positions look there is a there is a there is a very um so my wife and i we were engaged we broke up for a couple months at the beginning of 2013. So there wasn't a Tinder yet. You had to go on like those dating websites if you wanted to online date.

And there was always like a fear of mine that, you know, you're like, yeah, what if I just meet a girl who just wants to put everything on the internet? Like, you know what I mean? Like there was always, I was a nobody, okay? Like nobody. I think there is kind of a fear of that with players.

But when you're 18 years old, you're shooting your shot on social media, there probably isn't a fear of that. No. And she didn't put him on blast. She didn't put his name out there. No, but she obviously could. The screen grabs exist. So as long as he's not sending around Richard pics, he's probably fine.

Yeah, but what if it's just like, hey, I see you're nearby. Let's hang out. What's wrong with that? That's probably fine, I think. Yeah. If you have a D pick, yeah, you're probably not going to get the response that you think. So that's the advice.

Guys, keep it PG. We all know what you're thinking about. Maybe that'll happen. Just don't put it all out there until, you know, maybe you've met in person and found out that she's cool and you're not doing anything too creepy. All right. Last one I got. We'll see if anything else comes up as we go through this. But, Jeff, I've known you a little while.

Every year I see a picture of the tree that you bring into your house. You have a very large, I think the word is vestibule, entrance area in your home. You have a large home and you have a very large entrance area and you fill it. A foyer? Yeah, maybe a foyer. Yeah, yeah. You fill it with these very, very large Christmas trees. So I would say over under 29 and a half feet, the Schwartz family Christmas tree this year.

Oh, it's 13 and a half feet. 13, okay, all right, I over guessed it. But this year though, we have some concerns because I really had my first old man injury this year with my Christmas tree. I was helping my dad put it up and it kind of and i was i have the top of the tree because i'm tallest so like my dad has the base he's pushing the base down i'm pushing the tree up and i had i do it with one hand typically and my it was my left hand

and we kind of had to like drop the tree back down but my fingers got caught in the branches and i kind of like jam my wrist and it's been been like three weeks, man. And the wrist is just, is not, I have a little brace that I'm wearing. My wife's mocking me for it. It's my first old man injury. Like I've had some football stuff I have to deal with since I retired, but I just consider like football stuff,

like my back or my ankle. That's my first one where like three weeks, like I just did upper body in the weight room last week. It's been a while since I'd done it. And the other problem is my wife takes a tree out on Christmas morning. It's her tradition. She just wants it out of the house. I remember seeing this. She drags it out like it's a sled. This is the biggest tree we've gotten. And it's still alive. It's still pretty alive.

And she said she doesn't think she could do it herself this year. And if that's the case, I don't know if our tradition will be broken. Am I allowed to help her? I don't know because she drags it out there by herself. She's an independent woman. And I'm going to live stream it for you guys Christmas morning. She pulls that whole thing down. But again, normally the tree's dead, so dead kind of easier to drag.

This one's still pretty alive. I don't want you to risk another old man injury be it real shame if you hurt yourself on the way in and on the way out that seems like low back problems yeah wrist is a wrist whatever you can get over that but once the low back starts to go jeff it's bad news it is it is uh it is bad news when the bat goes. But yeah, the tree is up. Santa's coming. We have our elf on the shelf around the house. We should get a mensch on the bench. Maybe next year we'll do a mensch on the bench. My Jewish kids are utterly

confused. The real deal is Christmas is way more fun than Hanukkah. It's like a better time. Interesting. I'm not sure I agree with that. Why do you think Hanukkah just like a better time yeah interesting I'm not sure I agree with that why do you think Hanukkah is better well I depends your perspective right as a newer dad Hanukkah you can control what things the pace of gifts how much you want to put into any given night you could basically mail it in for a few of the nights as long as you come big with one night

that is very true. You can, two or three nights can be like crayons. Yeah. And whereas Christmas, it's just like madness, man. It's chaos under that tree. And the Taryn, and no matter how,

what you give them, no matter how cool it is, there's always a search for more. When your kids are really young, the gift shouldn't even matter. Like we could just give them empty boxes, you know, until they're about three

and that would be good enough. But I like Hanukkah. We, by the way, have never told them there's eight nights to Hanukkah. Never once mentioned it. Well, my kids are seven and five. They know that now. But the fact is though is that, yes, for parents, but for kids, Christmas is way more fun. Every major Jewish holiday celebrates death and destruction that's true a lot of bad memories yeah like you you can have santa big jolly fat santa yeah or you could talk about the temple being destroyed and a little bit of oil lasting from one day to eight days okay what all right what story is better there we're gonna talk about like a series

of plagues that the children have to list off everyone to a passover seder and you're like huh what's going on here and there's some old man going dom death blood yeah you're like yeah safarda dom you're like you're just like doing the, yeah. Locusts. Yeah. That's the grossest shit ever. I've never understood why some old man will sit at the end of the table just reading off the scariest crap and then be like, hey, you four kids, come over here and ask some questions. Yeah. I was always the one that had to sing the four questions too. Come sing the four questions.

the four questions too comes in the four questions monista no it's just just like non it's all it's all our holiday except i guess rosh hashanah we get to have apples and honey thankfully but everything's about and and it's not christmas is about like jolly fat santa and and like they so i get now my my son loves being jewish and he loves it so much and he loved they both love hanukkah but um you know they're but now they're at the stage where they want to light the candles. But Hanukkah ended like two weeks ago, so they're ready for a couple of presents for Christmas. My son is very, very bright, and I'm curious if he figured out yet about Santa. I won't say it because if there's if there's parents listening right now our kids listening in the car well but like well i'm curious this is it's coming soon that would be

the last uh over under that i will not articulate would be at what age over under and and your son is right where i would have set the line so so my father-in-law played Santa every year. That's what he did. So my kids did not know that. He passed away, I think, three years ago now, right around the new year. But he came over the house and played Santa. And my kids sort of didn't – they kind of looked at him like, I kind of know you, but like,

and then my stepdad, my stepfather, father, stepfather-in-law came over like the next weekend without his gear on. And they're like, you were Santa, weren't you? And like, that was three years ago now. And so I wonder if my son still remembers that. Yeah, so we'll see. We'll see.

It's getting close, but they won't give up the gifts though no no no reason to give up i know there's other podcasts like you know simmons does parent corner very quickly very quickly my kids for christmas for hanukkah they asked for like legos and barbies and makeup and um minecraft for the Switch. My two kids asked for virtual reality goggles and a golf cart. And a golf cart. My son's like, I want a golf cart. A golf cart for what? He's like, just to drive around the neighborhood for.

I was like, screw you. I don't give a golf cart. That's how bougie my kids are, man. I love my kids to death, but those are two bougie answers. I'm going to tell you, Jeff, what you need to steal a line from Shaq. Shaq has an all-time great line he says to his kids, which is, we're not rich. I'm rich. anytime your kids ask for some virtual reality goggles and a golf cart you say daddy might be able to afford those things but you can't so sorry promises but now but it's still

santa kid it's still santa i need to ask santa for the stuff well then i think maybe you reached the golf cart i might get at some point not Not now. But virtual reality golf, I was like, hon, do you know what those are? Why would you even – should I stop on YouTube? Oh, okay. Well, that explains it. I think, Jeff, you know what? You get the golf cart after you get the back injury

from having to lug the giant tree out of your house. The giant tree out of the house. That's when you do it. By the way, I know we've been recording this. This Monday Night Football game is atrocious. I'm sorry if you guys said. It is an atrocious football game. Oh, man, it has not been pretty.

But we've been pretty, and we'll be back on Thursday with our wagering show. We're 3-1 at the moment for the week. We still have the Eagles minus six on Tuesday night. Tonight, if you're listening to this, on Tuesday. Maybe we'll go to 4-1 at the moment for the week. We still have the Eagles minus six on Tuesday night, tonight, if you're listening to this, on Tuesday. Maybe we'll go to 4-1. Last year, we made a huge climb at the end of the season to get back to 500. So maybe we'll do that now.

And I owe Matt a hat tip. I even texted him Sunday morning and said, the Saints pick is awful. I don't like it. He was right. So hat tip to Matt on that one. All right, guys. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We'll be back on

Thursday. Have a great couple of days.