Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Brees Breaks Records, Prescott Flubs Lines & Belichick Avoids Suspensions

Episode Date: December 17, 2019

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And it expires the end of the year, that's December 31st, 2019. So make quick moves and score last-minute tickets. Will he get it here yes touchdown pass 540 in the 504 from the athletic i'm jeff schwartz drew breeze is a walking broken record. The Cowboys hold their destiny in Philly. And Spygate 2.0 continues. Unfortunately, it will never end. It's Tuesday, December 17th.

And this is Jeff Shorts of Smarter Than You. I'm in studio in Los Angeles. Gabe Goodwin, how you doing, buddy? I'm great. Very nice to have you here. I know. It's a real studio. It's awesome.

It's different than my normal setup where I record this. All right, guys. 35th episode. Thank you for tagging along this whole season. A quick recap on the way this works. Gabe here is you guys, right? He reads my Twitter mentions. He's on Twitter. He sees what you guys tweet at me. He sees what the prevailing wisdom on Twitter is. And he repeats that to me to get me fired up just like I am on social media or when I write or do other things. So that is his role. He does it very well. Thank you. Very, very well. And so for those who are listening, all the episodes new to the show, that's the theme of the show. We have some great topics today, like I mentioned, and we will get fiery with the Patriots again as Gabe is a Jets

fan. He hates the Patriots. So we'll get to that in just a second. You always try to disqualify me that way. And it's not fair. And just like you just said, I am like almost all of the public out there. I'm not like the media. I'm with the people, man. And the people want answers. We want to know what the hell is going on in New England. So we'll get to that.

But let's start with a happy story. A story that I think damn near everyone who likes football enjoyed last night. That was Drew Brees. Hees he was just insane right he set the all-time touchdown pass record passing peyton manning of all people um i mean every relevant person on earth from brett farve to ellen degeneres was tweeting about it was great it was a great night but actually the record that was maybe more incredible was that he went 29 of 30 setting a single game record for completion percentage okay i will remind everyone drew breeze is 40 years old we said it on this show a few weeks ago that maybe that weird hand injury that kept him out for the sort of early third of the

season maybe it is actually helping him right now maybe the rest was good for his legs and his body and his arm. So, Jeff, why not just give aging legendary quarterbacks weeks off? Why not send guys to the deal like they do in baseball? Give them a little load management like they're doing in the NBA. Why not? Because you only have 16 games, and the Saints were fortunate enough to win five of those games without him, obviously. He puts them in a place to get number one seed in the playoffs. If they go two and three, as most people maybe assume they did with their schedule, right? They played the Cowboys, they played the Seahawks, they played the Bears.

Everyone expected two and three, maybe, or three and three if Teddy missed, Teddy to play for six games. They might not be in the playoffs with that record. And that's why you can't do this. It'd be great if Tom Brady were to take off a month, but Jared Stidham's going to win them how many games? I mean, and if they had lost two more games this year, they might not even win the AFC East this year.

So this is, I think, to your point, when we texted last night about this, I think it's totally accurate. Drew Brees has not looked this strong at the end of a season in many years now. We saw last year his numbers start to decline about week 12 or 13. His arm wasn't as strong. His arm looked strong last night.

His legs looked strong. His bottom, everything looked great last night. I do think that taking off six weeks was great for him. He had the bye week as well. But I just, you can't do this in the NFL. You can't purposely sit a starting quarterback. There's not even enough good starting quarterbacks. There's barely enough backups that can even win football games.

Teddy Bridgewater, great job. I love Teddy. Did you see this week that he just rode his bike to the Superdome and sat in a high school football game? I heard there was a game where he just rode his bike and just walked on the field and watched the game. It's great. Football guy. Loves football. Football guy.

But you can't just sit your quarterback. All right. But wait a second. So what if you think you have the quarterback of the future? Right? guy loves football football guy but you you can't you can't just sit your quarterback all right but but wait a second so what if you think you have the quarterback of the future right so i mean you're you're taking a shot at this stidham guy you know i i thought that was like the producer on a morning tv show i had no idea that was the backup quarterback for the patriots but let's just take this stretch with the patriots they had the redskins the giants and the jets three weeks in a row then they follow that up with browns, Ravens, Eagles, and Cowboys. So, you know, you'd think that's a pocket where you could say,

ah, give the 49-year-old, however the hell old Tom Brady is. He's probably lying about his age too, but whatever. Give him a rest there and keep him fresh in the back half. I mean, Aaron Rodgers probably could have used a couple weeks off here and there. Like, this is a thing. These guys are old men. But here's the deal. Again, what if the Patriots lose one of those games by accident, right?

And now they're 10-4. They're tied with the Bills heading into this weekend. Like, that's the problem, right? Like, if you lose a game by accident, then it screws your playoffs. In basketball, you know, Kawhi Leonard can miss 25 games. They just have to get in the playoffs, and then they play every game. And there's no – home field is not as important in the NBA. They don't need to – they should get in the dance.

The problem with football is that you need to get in the dance, but also about the old quarterbacks, they need a week off in the playoffs, and that's what you get if you get a one or two seed. So it doesn't make sense compared to basketball and baseball. Baseball, for sure. There's veterans who just go in the DL in the middle of the season just because, like, they have a hangnail or something, right? Yes.

For the whole season. This is always a thing. So maybe one game a year you can do this to an older player. And obviously week 17, as we get there, as the playoffs become set, you'll see, of course, you know, I think the Ravens will probably rest everyone if they lock up the one seed this weekend in Week 17. But it doesn't make practical sense.

Again, you can't lose a game. By the way, it's what makes the NFL awesome and why we love it is every week there's a sense of urgency. Every week anything can happen. We saw the Falcons this weekend in San Francisco. It's different than any other sport. No one takes off like that. And so that's why I think you can never really do this on a large scale.

Okay, that's fair. So let's talk about what we saw in the field for a moment then. So they're 11-3, which has the same record as all the top teams in the NFC. But, you know, the tiebreakers are all funky. And so you're saying you'd do this to get home field advantage and to set yourself up with a bye in the playoffs. But they aren't even necessarily sitting on that. They looked amazing last night, beating a team that only a few weeks ago we thought was pretty good in the Colts.

So what do we make of the Saints right now? Obviously, Brees is a legend, but what about this team? Well, I was impressed with the way their defense balanced back after getting torched by the Niners. I mean, that was pretty impressive last night. The Colts aren't bad. I mean, they're not great on offense. I think they've been overrated a little bit this year, but they made them look awful last night. They harassed Bursette. And this is the defense we expect against the 49ers. The thing about the Saints is that if they can somehow get home field,

and that basically means that the Seahawks have to beat the Niners week 17. The Saints went out, and then the Seahawks beat the Niners week 17 because the Saints have the tiebreaker over the Seahawks because Bridgewater beat them. Right. They would have the number one seed if they went out. So they are 6-1 in the playoffs at home with Drew Brees. The one loss was the Rams last year. They're 1-5 on the road in the playoffs with Drew Brees.

So they need to have home field advantage. I mean, they don't need it, but obviously it'd be great. Dude, the Dome is so loud in the playoffs. It's so hard to play in. So if they have home field advantage, they're my favorites in the NFC. If they don't, I think it's kind of a toss-up. I think the Niners could win. The Seahawks could win.

The last point I'll make about the Saints, about why I like them a lot, and even if they don't get home field advantage, is they've all been here before. If you look at the Seahawks, still a relatively youngest team them a lot, and even if they don't get home foot advantage, is they've all been here before. If you look at the Seahawks, still a relatively youngest team of certain positions. Obviously, Wilson's been there a lot, but they don't have a lot of people left on that team that won Super Bowls. I'm not sure they have, maybe Baldwin? How long has Wagner been there?

Oh, no. Wagner's won and Wright. I think they both. Not a lot of guys. But that's it. Niners have had Sherman, who doesn't even play for them, who's from Minnesota. Joe Staley. That's it.

They have no one else who've even been that far. The Saints have, all these guys are back from last year. They've all done this before. So they know what it takes to win these games. So that, to me, puts them just a tiny bit above the Niners and Seahawks, in my opinion. But again, home field advantage for them is everything they went out and the Seahawks went out essentially the Saints off home food advantage is there any team real quick and we'll move to another debatable NFC contender here but um is there any team where home field advantage maybe doesn't matter in the NFC because I hear that a lot oh you gotta have home field advantage

but does it? I mean, come on. Make me a little smarter here. I would say the Niners do not matter. It matters for them if they just don't have to go to Seattle or New Orleans. Like getting home field for them is just I don't have to go to those places. To prevent those places. Levi's Stadium.

I don't know if you've been to Levi's Stadium. I have not. But it doesn't strike me as amazing home field advantage. Well, it's not that close to home, by the way. Yeah, that's also true. I mean, if you live up in the city, you've got to drive a long way. And look, if they host an NFC Championship game, of course it's going to be loud.

I mean, you're going to have some sort of advantage if you're the home team. But it's not the Superdome. It's not a place where you have to think in your head, like, okay, I have to really prepare for the noise. It's not a place where you have to change the way your call plays the line of scrimmage. Where you have to have hand signals now, you know, up front to figure things out. Where you're tapping church trying to find out the snap count.

You don't have to prepare all week like that. In New Orleans and Seattle, man, you have to prepare. I remember playing a game in New Orleans in 2010. Regular season game. I'm at right tackle. I have to literally turn my head and look at the center. Because I can't hear the quarterback. He's right there. I can't hear him in a regular season game. I'm at right tackle. I have to literally turn my head and look at the center because I can't hear the quarterback. He's right there. I can't hear him in a regular season game. Imagine a playoff game in New Orleans. So that's the type of mindset you have playing New Orleans

and Seattle in the playoffs. You won't have that in San Francisco. You won't have that in Dallas. You'll have that in Minnesota if they won't get home field. But there are certain places that that's not a concern. Green Bay is not a concern. I play a playoff game there. It's not that loud. Great fans though. So that's why home field matters. Okay. I would also add, and maybe this wasn't a temptation for you, that if you play for the Saints, you're used to New Orleans. You're not tempted by the French quarter the way that maybe a visiting team might be. And perhaps that a thing we're very secluded though you can't we have curfews and oh yeah bed checks oh yeah yeah and some guys i don't think abide by that all the time but oh you don't think so but i think that i think that that the in theory they're supposed to be there and and be ready to uh to sleep and relax i don't think we don't stay

near the french quarter anyways okay fair enough well uh it was fun to watch drew brees last night let's let's see how long this run can go for him. One of the teams he might get, depending on that draw in the postseason, as of now, is potentially the Cowboys. You mentioned them. So they kicked the crap out of the Rams in Dallas on Sunday,

but it was not without controversy. We have a new gate, Jeff. This one we will call Defergate. After the league office in New york stepped in to fix dak prescott's mistake during the coin flip and change possession in the second half take a listen to this it is heads dallas has won the talls kicking it that way you want to kick we defer the second half yes okay you're gonna kick okay so that's that's dak prescott mixing up the word defense and defer

or just generally being confused, the ref being confused by his confusion, and basically all common sense suggested that Dak meant to say we defer, we're going to want to choose in the second half, which would give them the ball, but he didn't say that. So it looked like the Rams were going to have the ball at the first half and the second half. But then, all right then we hear somewhere during halftime of the broadcast we hear that New York has stepped in and the Cowboys uh will in fact have the ball to start the second half they're already up big now they're going to have the ball it basically ends the game right there yes

they're up like 24 and seven halftime something like that it's just they the rams needed a possession right there to start to close this gap and make it a game so now um people think and this just like the setup of the show people out there think this was the league was stepping in to to help the cowboys yes that the league there's a conspiracy here that new york in quotes was alter altering the outcome of this game. You know, Dak screwed up, but they came in to save the day for America's team, for Fox, for whoever else you want to believe. Are you one of these people, Jeff? So, no, I'm not. But a couple of things that are rather interesting about this.

So, Dak not knowing to say defer is kind of hilarious to me. Yes. Like it just kind of – it kind of shows you that Jason Garrett doesn't have everyone prepared. Like you should have – you should just tell, hey, we're deferring if we win. Like that's all that needs to be said, right? Correct. And Dak knew what he wanted. He knew he wanted to defer, but he didn't know how to say it properly. And then someone obviously – like he turns to Lawrence – I think it was – what's his face?

Dexter Lawrence – not Dexter Lawrence. DemMarcus Lawrence and was like, what do I do here? I was like, Dak, just defer. You're the quarterback of the Dallas. You don't know what to say.

And then he said, obviously, kick a couple times. And then he said, I want to defer. And now Walt Anderson just, I don't know, he can't probably hear anymore.

Had no idea. But Walt should have known. Like, this is not normal. You don't normally win the toss and then like – wait, yeah, they won the toss and then – most teams don't say kick, right? You don't say kick. We want to play defense, I think, is what he said. Yeah, he meant to say defer.

So it was just really odd. And the NFL stepping in was also interesting because I don't think it was tinfoil hat on and they were, you know, they were doing this for the Cowboys, but what caused them to step in here versus other situations? Fox came on. This is their A team, right? So they were ready to try to cover this. Pereira came on and basically explained that rule 4.1- whatever, sort of you can clarify things to do with the clock and flow of game and just

outside of like, was that a hold or not? There are situations where the league office can step in and say, administratively, something's screwed up here. And he was arguing that perhaps this is one of those cases why it took so long i don't know but i'll ask you this people were speculating it screwed up sean mcveigh's game plan or it it would have changed the way that he managed clock late in the second half or

how he made adjustments for the second half like is there anything to that i'd love to i believe me i want to be like an anti-dallas guy here i have been all season but i don't see the evidence of this they're down a lot well i didn't change much i need to look at the at the at the play-by-play to see like if that actually was the thing that might have happened because i mean yeah you you think i mean not really no not really because the rams were down 21-7 they tried to get yards at the end of the half there was uh what it looked like there was uh two minutes left in the half and they threw it, you know, golf through interception

and Dallas eventually scored and the half ended. So they're down 28-7 in the half. No, this wouldn't have changed anything. Other than the players mentally, you know, being like, okay, well, we have the ball after the half or, you know, the Rams. Is that a thing though? As you guys are limping your way back to the locker room after a bad first half, do you say, at least we get the ball?

Yes, you do um but i don't think it terribly mattered in this instance i mean you know that in the game you're going to have quick change of possessions at times right let's see you know someone fumbles and then you know the defense is on the field again right away you're used to having that it feels like the same sort of situation um but administrative stuff again like what if there's a clock error and you know someone gets an extra 30 seconds or there's a weird like did you step in then like i just i get why they did it i mean it made sense they corrected an obvious error by the officials he said defer at some point in that um but i i don't i don't know if i like them stepping in well but i don't know if i don't even know if Well, but I don't even know if I buy the idea

that at some point he muttered the right word. Like, if you're on Jeopardy, you can't, like, get a second shot at answering the question. Like, he was asking, what do you want to do? But he eventually said the right word, which was, I want to defer to the second half. So what? He was like, a lot of people were yelling to him.

And I think part of it, too, is that he said, he said, I want to defer to the second half, and then Walt Anderson said, kick. And Dak was like a lot of people were yelling to him. And I think part of it, too, is that he said, I want to defer to the second half. And then Walt Anderson said, kick. And Dak was like, sure. And you could tell Dak was—the funny part is if you look at the video, you see Dak's wheel spinning in his head like, I'm supposed to say something. I don't know what it is. And then he said it.

And then when Walt said kick, he was like, yeah, we want to kick. Sure. But Walt should have known. When Walt said kick, he was like, yeah, we want to kick, sure. But Walt should have known. I mean, look, how many teams lose the coin toss and then decide to – wait, did they – I'm thinking they lost the coin toss, right? Now you're going to confuse us. Zuri's now looking at us like, see, it's confusing. So wait, wait, hold on.

They won the coin toss. They elected to kick off to start the half, and then their fur thing So wait, wait, hold on. They wanted the coin toss. They elected to kick off to start the half and then the defer thing screwed up the second half, but they did win the coin toss. Yeah. He got the heads or tails part of it, right? That was all his brain could take. But my question is is that why would they have to kick? I guess

they won the coin toss. Oh yeah, because they have to kick. Yeah, they have to kick. Yeah, because the Rams get to choose the second half of what they want to do. Right. So that's why. Okay. Yeah. Right. So because if you say defer, that means the Rams, because the Rams get to choose the second half of what they want to do. Right. So that's why. Okay, yeah. Right. Because if you say defer, that means the Rams get to choose the first half. Cowboys choose the second half. That's why. In my head, it didn't – See, hold on a sec.

We're in person. I'm going to have to rib you a little bit here, dude. You're making it very clear to me that you have also never been the coin toss guy. No, no, no. Because you seem a little unclear on how this works. No, I'm trying to figure – think no because it's you i in my mind it's you teams choose what they do at the start of each half yeah and in my mind i just forgot that that's how both of them do it right because it's a lot to keep track of and if you're

the quarterback of the team you should know i was i was never in charge of saying any of this but you've got more important things to do if you're the quarterback so i guess my question no it's not really it's not it's not that hard i've of course it's not that hard but just now for a moment we each had a brain fart like it's it's just a lot racing on in your brain i guarantee you that if i was put out there and my coach said if we win the toss defer i would have managed to say defer i don't know jeff because it's not that hard it's again it's not that hard I was thinking procedural stuff

not actually what I would call if I was out there well tails never fail so that part's easy I would call tails yes yeah okay so that's an easy way just go with tails

and then defer or one of the four people up there should have said defer like how does no one it seemed like Dak almost was surprised he had to say anything too

but why is he I guess what I want to know is why is he the guy why don't you just give this to some other dude like when like who cares let someone else do it anyone else I'm surprised he had to say anything, too. But why is he? I guess what I want to know is why is he the guy? Why don't you just give this to some other dude? Like win. Who cares? Let someone else do it.

Yeah, anyone else. Oh, it's a great question. Maybe we got to ask Garrett. But this, by the way, can I just say, this game was the reason why Garrett has to go. Okay, first of all, his quarterback. The coin toss? No, the whole thing. Okay.

Garrett, obviously, and maybe you told him to defer, but this Cowboys team was the one we should have seen all season, and we haven't, and that's the problem. That's on Garrett. I don't – it's – you can't – this is the team that I picked to win the NFC. This team that showed up on Sunday. You can't play like this. And so this is – it's on Garrett. You're saying – wait a second.

So you're saying that they finally played well in week 15 against a pretty good team in the Rams, proving what they were supposed to be in your eyes, and that is the reason why the coach should be fired? Yes. I see. Because they should have played like this all season long. Weeks four through 14, they were trash.

Yes, they were. They should have played better. I see. By the way, DeMarcus Lawrence said that it was his fault. Said Dallas was going to receive, but the defense was eager to face the Rams after bad taste in the playoffs, so they deferred. Yeah, okay. Well, then they have a fall guy. They know how this stuff works.

That'll get to our next topic. This is the problem. This is the problem is that there's no communication. This shouldn't be that hard. It shouldn't be that hard. So, okay. So, give it a serious football take for a second. They're 7-7. They got a play-in game

essentially a play-in game in Philly this weekend with the 7-7 Eagles. I mean, everyone's now, all of a sudden because we have to switch every week, everyone's now red hot on the Cowboys. It's, oh my God, you don't want any piece of the Cowboys. How awful would it be to meet up with them in the playoffs? Three weeks ago, they

were dead. The Eagles, on the other hand, nobody's taking seriously. Two years ago, they won dead. The Eagles, on the other hand, nobody's taking seriously. Two years ago, they won a Super Bowl with a similar roster. So explain this to me. Why is Dallas so obviously better than Philly? Well, they're better in a lot of positions, especially on defense. I mean, just personnel-wise, right? They're better at wide receiver. I think their offensive line as a whole is better, especially with Lane Johnson not playing for the Eagles. They're better at running back. They're better at linebacker in the secondary.

The Eagles have a great pass rush. Now, this season, Dak has played better than Wentz. Now, Wentz has done good things in the fourth quarter of games, but his first three quarters often are just terrible. Now, part of that is they don't have any wide receivers. But Dallas is more talented. This is the point I made all season. They're more talented than almost any team they play.

And they just don't play up to that talent each and every Sunday. And the Eagles are – if the Cowboys lose to the Eagles, Jason Garrett, the Eagles are not good right now. They're just not. Washington almost beat them. Washington's trying to lose. They're terrible. And so I think the Cowboys should win this game.

Will they win this game in Philly? I don't know. The worst case scenario for any Cowboy fan is they win this game, they host the 49ers in the playoffs, they pull out a win in round one, and then Jason Garrett stays. Yeah. Yeah, if Shaq and I were talking about this, that seems like what's going to happen.

It does. It seems exactly – they'll win that game. By the way, as a Niners fan, as a kid, Niners, Cowboys in the playoffs sounds awesome. Oh, yeah. Guys our age, that's a great throwback. That might be the highest rated wildcard weekend game in a long time. That is an appealing game.

Fox would love it. Aikman would just, he'd love it. He would be, I mean, imagine the people they'd roll out for that one. That'd be pretty cool. It'd be awesome, yeah. Deion show up. That'd be nice. Yeah. All right. they'd roll out for that one that'd be pretty cool it'd be awesome yeah dion show up that'd be nice yeah um all right so i mean we're we're we're sort of hesitating to say the cowboys are all the way back and garrett is the reason you don't think they go as far as they should that's that's the

summary on them yes and they should pick a new guy to flip the coin next week yes all right take a big deep breath here okay because i'm I'm worried about us during this next part. In this room, we're going to fight to death over this topic. Okay. So the Patriots got it back on track with a win over the Bengals. So they're 11-3. They're sitting atop the AFC. They got the two seed with two weeks to play.

All right? This week, they've got the Bills, who just clinched a playoff spot, by the way. Congrats, Bills. But let's be honest, the biggest opponent right now for the Patriots is probably the league office, or at least it probably should be. So you sort of kind of shrugged last week this time. This news was breaking as we were talking and my mic was exploding. You sort of shrugged it off. But this weekend, Jay glazer put out a video of the video that the pats crew was

shooting during that bengals browns game all right here's a little snippet of the video of the video which i will just call evidence number one and this is a piece you're filming on your advanced scout yeah yeah come on guys i don't see the advanced scout in this footage. No, that's not. We were trying to get some field perspective. You can't. That's not the field. Why do you think you could take that?

I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I'm sorry. But I can delete this right here for you damage is done my friend no it isn't because we deleted it okay if your immediate reaction to getting caught doing something you're not supposed to do is don't worry i'll delete the evidence i will like burn the evidence yeah if that you did something wrong and you know it. It looks very bad.

They look very guilty. And the video, that guy, if there was no audio, you'd be like, yeah, nothing, like they recorded nothing, right? I mean, it does look like

it could be B-roll, like they said. Well, it doesn't, but we'll get to that. All right, so my whole thing with this as we're starting to get more details is I go to the why, okay?

I'm not a conspiracy guy, right? I'm a why guy. I want to know why things happen. So let's go down like the reasons why they would do this, right? So there's no signals being hand, you know, they don't hand signal stuff anymore, right? So it's being radioed, all right? Clarify that because I think people are missing the point. Yeah.

So this is something that I think is people are starting to come around to, but I just, and what's bothering me about this topic too is that, is that ex-players are saying things that are not true in 2019. All right. So the why of the first spy gate was that the Jets were really good and other teams that they filled, and they were actually signaling the defense to the players because they did not have radio communication on the defensive side of the ball back then.

They've had it on offense forever. That was the why of that spy gate. I'm going to record the defense giving signals. I'm going to watch the play that's unfolding, cover three, let's say. I'm going to match them up. And then when we play the Jets and they call that coverage out, whatever it is, I can then tell Tom Brady or the wide receivers, it's cover three, right? Similar concept to what the Astros were doing. Yes.

Just stealing signs. Correct. So your guys have a little bit of an advantage in the game. And even in the Astros thing, I mean, it was like a split second. I mean, they're banging as the changeup is on the way. Yep. Okay. Okay.

And okay. So that was the why. Now, the why of stealing signs now, there is no why because there is no hand signaling of plays anymore because after Spygate, the NFL said, look, maybe we should mic up a defensive player too. So there's radio communication between the defensive caller, play caller, which might be up in the booth, by the way. I don't know if the Bengals guy be up in the booth, by the way. I don't know if the Bengals guy's up in the booth.

Ah, you're getting to a big question. And also, and then also, obviously, to the player that has, it's a green dot on their helmet. And I think the Bengals is actually their safety. And I watched the Browns game and you could see clearly the radios were working because they huddled together. You saw the guy with the C and the green dot giving the signals, you know, giving the play call. And within a play call, this is something that's been very misreported. Within a play call are included the adjustments. No one is looking to the sidelines for adjustments. That's college football. In the NFL, it's all built in. And if a guy motions,

if there's a change of formation on offense, the defense adjusts accordingly without having to look for adjustment to the sidelines. And if you go watch a Bengals film, none of the players will look over the sidelines. There's no, there's no, you know, they're not looking over there. Okay. So what you do see is the personnel being signaled out. So if there is, you know, if the defense is matching the offensive personnel, they're signaling out what the offensive personnel is and what to match it with.

That stuff that I can see in the huddle, like I don't need to record the bangles for that. There's coaches that literally do that. That's their job. They look with binoculars at the sideline. Hey, guy. Okay. 11 personnel is in the game. And they tell the coaches.

Okay. That's not a big deal. So there's a definitive why for the first Spygate. For this one, there's not a definitive why they would do this. And so that to me is the interesting part. And we're still missing something about why this occurred. You know, they were only credentialed all season for this game, right? They were not credentialed for any other game to record any footage from the press box.

They're doing this while everyone's watching. Like, they're in the press box. Like, there's media members there. They're wearing this while everyone's watching. Like, they're in the press box. Like, there's media members there. They're wearing Patriots gear. I mean, if they were doing this all season long, we would know about this. And it just doesn't seem worth it to get caught filming the Bengals' sideline for reasons to help your team win the game this weekend against the Bengals. He knows that. Lastly, the idea that he needs to tape Zach Taylor.

He just played this offense in the Super Bowl. He that he needs to tape zach taylor he just played this offense in the super bowl he doesn't need to tape zach taylor well you mean because he had mcveigh he was with mcveigh so yeah yes yeah okay a few things here um one the best way to commit some crimes is right out in the open right so and smart criminals know that two uh you don't necessarily the why doesn't necessarily matter right so i was talking to sheck yesterday we talked about this like if you're driving you get pulled over for speed i'm sure that's happened before does the cop really care what that you're late to pick up your kid or you know it doesn't matter you were going too fast i caught you time to pay a price well i i still think the patient should be punished

okay i'm i don't think that because they broke the rule you're not allowed to do that broke the rule so i'm i'm okay with the punishing part of it because they broke the rules you follow the rules don't get punished again but like i still think about the why this would happen so your point's valid i'm with you here okay but so this is where i think patriots fans and the rest of humanity get a little bit disconnected right patriots fans are so defensive of the fact that, well, this doesn't invalidate our championships. We're no less than we were. You're not better than me. Like, that's the way that they think.

Of course. And so they get worked up because the insinuation by people like us who are just asking for the why. We just want to know what's happening and have the rules be enforced fairly. We're not saying your quarterback stinks. Your coach isn't the greatest of all time. We're not saying we want to come for your six rings. All we're saying is you're cheating again. You have to pay a price. And I will say what Max Kellerman, my buddy at ESPN said, it's time to get a little more

severe. Max called for a Belichick suspension. I want to know why that's not appropriate. He's in charge of this organization on every single level and takes pride in it. Why isn't this his fault? Well, I guess the question is, is he coordinating this? I mean, I feel it would be tough to suspend him if you didn't have proof that he was telling the guy to do this, right? I mean, I think that's...

You don't... The league suspends people without proof for lots of reasons and none of them have anything to do with gameplay they don't suspend coaches for that though i mean that this would mark a he's also the gm uh no i think nick cesario is the gm i mean come on call him whatever the hell you want he's in charge i just like i again i go back to the why part of this. Like, I understand. And this is, I think, the part that's for suspending Belichick is the why is important. Because, again, Spygate made total sense to me. You're recording, like, a signal that you see them actually doing. Like, I remember our signal.

You're in the studio with me. Like, this is what our defensive coordinator did in college for a blitz. He'd do this and he'd go do this three times. I could be in my stance on offense or like stand in the line

of scrimmage and look to the D coordinator and watch him do this and tell everyone, hey guys, a blitz is coming. Like, we all knew what the signals were.

Like, so Spygate, the first one, made sense to me. And this one, again, the why doesn't make sense. So you need to find out the why. And I think we're missing,

there's something that all of us are missing as to why this is happening and maybe the nfl knows and if that comes out then yeah sure suspend belichick but until then i think that's that's a lot okay so there's still more here believe it or not you're talking about you knew who to look for and so you could you because you're a smart person out there and your focus was let me try to understand everything that's going on with the 11 guys in front of me you knew where to look on the sideline if you wanted more information what if it's as simple as they just don't know who's doing what on the opposing team sideline and they're going to try to watch and see which

which assistant of nothing is walking play cards over which guy is the guy if they're gonna because people your buddy dan orlovsky's mentioned this you can't leave your playbook around when you're playing new england i said this on the podcast last week all that stuff yeah all this so if you just want to know who's the guy that carries the paper to the sidelines so we can follow him around and steal stuff later yeah but in but in you can't do that stuff in cincinnati though like that stuff you can do at home so like that's part of this as well is that they're playing this game in so maybe they were scouting for next season but for this season you you're you're not gonna you're not going to you're like this is at home that all the stuff that dan and i talked about was at home like

things that we and again it could just be paranoia i mean they could be doing none of this stuff but because of Spygate, because of rumors of them watching Super Bowl practices and all this other stuff. Because of Deflategate. Because of their owners' issues away from the field. Deflategate, no one cares. Come on. Come on.

They're serial rule breakers. But Deflategate, man, I watched quarterbacks get balls rubbed up different ways in the locker room. That's nothing. That's such a, yeah, football, sorry. That's such a non, that's such a stupid story. It was so, it was only over the,

they only got in trouble because they didn't cooperate with the NFL. That's the only reason they were suspended. Yes, that's the point. These guys break rules and then rub it in the face of the league because they know that their owner has a say in what the commissioner of the league makes every year.

It's obvious why this is. But Jerry Jones has just as much power as Robert Kraft does. No, Jerry Jones is the one name you could bring up. The suspension part, wow. Do you just spend it for a playoff game? Like when do you spend the first game of next season? You know, Max didn't expand in what I saw from him, so I don't want to quote him i just think

for me that any amount of time is appropriate i think that's just it feels awful severe for this for this um but the habitual rule breaking is obviously an issue and and that i'm fine like i said they find them they take draft picks away um the suspension part feels i mean unless you you know for certain. Nothing's worked so far. Nothing's going to work. Half a million dollar speeding ticket. That's nothing.

Draft picks, they don't care about those. Nothing works. They win 10 games every year. Is this another reason why Tom would leave? Yes. I noticed that last week. He's just tired of this. He's tired of just, and obviously some of the stuff might have helped him in the past.

But again, he's just tired of putting up with all this. There's no way he wants to be asked about this. And by the way, if there is a person in this little criminal conspiracy who doesn't know what's going on legitimately, it's probably him. And he'd probably be shocked to know that football's a lot harder when everyone on your sideline doesn't know what the other team is doing see you just said that Patriots fans were upset because you're trying to invalidate them that's what you're doing right now I've been trying to invalidate Tom Brady for 19 seasons no I'm unabashed about that that's on brand uh I just a couple obviously it didn't even help him he threw for like 100 yards against the Bengals

their offense is bad a couple well he should have didn't even help me. He threw for like 100 yards against the Bengals. Their offense is bad. Well, he should have taken those few weeks off earlier in the year. Different topic. A couple of things to demystify. A, I worked in production for a long time now. I've shot a lot of sports video. Yeah. You don't shoot B-roll from 900 feet up of like 40 randos in some wide shot.

That's never going to be what B-roll is used to cover voiceovers. And when people are just talking, you need to kind of change it up, cover edits. That would never be the video you would use. So the excuse of, hey, we're trying to show what the Van Scout will look at during a game. That's horrible looking video. That would not make any finished piece. And by the way, a lot of people have dumped on the guys who do your work or do your job yeah i watched a bunch of the videos they're fine they look perfectly nice we also don't even know what the other seven minutes of the video show i guess it

was probably the same thing right right but it was a locked off camera this is so b-roll you'd be in there picking off the tights you'd be looking for cool interesting videos i've watched that i watched some stupid video they made about the chef and all the meals he prepares beautiful shots of steak guys eating in the cafeteria we're taking walks right not not grainy bangle sideline no nothing like it and here's here's another thing they put out one a month roughly yeah they say that they they owed four by the end of the year okay which means that they could be gathering quote-unquote b- roll for a long ass time. All right. So at any point, but they were also not credentialed for any of their game.

Fine. The final quarter of the season is all this, this next video. If you track how often these videos come out would be probably early January. Okay. So, which means that they could be filming any of the last four or five games

of the year and claiming, well, this is all part of our, this is part of our piece. We're doing the do your job. And by the way, that might be all this doofus from Saugus or wherever knows. Like I'm not, I, who knows? He might not be in on it.

He did put out a statement, by the way, without the knowledge of the Patriots. The statement is giving away the crime. That's how I know this is nonsense. It was the one yesterday, right? He got his own statement, I believe. Yes. Separate the Patriots, right? He gave out his own statement, I believe. Yes. Separate the Patriots. Mike Reese reported his statement.

And he said, quote, Our department was charged with completing four do-your-job segments by the end of the year. Okay? Which is how I know that he was probably going to look for this credential over and over and over again. So you're talking about the why. So do you think he had a credential for the last, who did they play week 17? Somewhere like wherever they play week 17? Well, they got the why. So do you think he had a credential for who they play week 17 somewhere, like wherever they play week 17? Well, they got the bills, so that one matters.

To me, it would be like, why don't you record the bills who are kicking butt? Dude, the way production works, they probably would have been. If this was quote-unquote. So you mean like they would have sent someone to Pittsburgh and recorded the bill? I would assume that they would have done that. If they're going to Cincinnati to cover Bengals Browns and they want to get video

to go with this piece that comes out in a month. I would have assumed that they probably would have tried to shoot that too. But the scout, they would have filmed the scout at every location.

If we believe the notion that they're gathering B-roll for a piece that would come out in January, then theoretically, this excuse would work for about four weeks. But I've seen some of these shows, too. I mean, they don't have to show the scout going to every game for four weeks. No, no, they certainly don't. Their time with him might just be a one-off in the facility one day.

What I'm saying is the excuse would be equally plausible for many weeks, which means that the Bengals, everyone's caught up on, oh, well, what do they need this extra footage to beat the Bengals? The Bengals suck. Why would they do this for the Bengals? It doesn't make sense.

I'm telling you the, why could have everything to do with covering the final quarter of the season. Maybe this stupid piece wouldn't have been, all it said was by the end of the year, maybe we wouldn't have seen this one until after the Superbowl. Who knows? But do we know? I guess the question is then, do we know if they were credentialed for the Steelers game

or just didn't go? I don't know that. I suspect we'll never know that. But that would be something that, to your point, that would make your point or would kill your point. Because if they were only credentialed for the one game, then. Well, then I would love to know the answer. Maybe someone can report on this.

You know Jay Glazer, probably. Give him a call. He seems to get these videos. Maybe someone can report on this. You know Jay Glazer probably. Give him a call. He seems to get these videos from the NFL League office very easily. By the way, him scooping all this stuff is absolutely fantastic. He does great work, and he remains well-sourced at the highest levels in the NFL, which is a delicate balance. So good on Jay Glazer. There's more to be said about this one.

We can't finish it now. I'm sure it'll be said next week. It'll come up again. All right, let's move quickly into a more football topic. So the Bucs, yes, those Bucs are seven and seven winners of four in a row. I was shocked when I noticed that they host the Texans this weekend in a game that looks like, you know, Jameis and the Bucs could be spoiling the Texans season. That's the way it is. I certainly wouldn't try to bet that game if I were you. So Jameis has set a bunch of passing records in the first half this week. He did it with a broken thumb on his playing hand. If you look at his numbers, they're kind of amazing considering what he's working with. Mike Evans is now out. Here's the take. Jameis is underrated because

he's just so damn memeable. All right. And he did it to himself. He's done some really stupid, bad things in his life, but he's also just done some silly, idiotic things that won't ever go away. If you go on and search Twitter for Jameis memes, they're endless. And because of that, nobody really takes him seriously. The fact is dude's only 25. He bombs the ball wherever he, wherever he needs to. He's in a decent offense now.

I think he's underrated because he's just seemed underrated because he's just seemed like such a joke. Well, he also throws the ball away to the opposite team many times. He has to. He has like 110 turnovers in his career, including fumbles. I thought about this this weekend watching him play. He's the one team where you kind of like – you just have to watch them play every week because they're fast. He throws an interception most often like in the first seven minutes of the game.

And then he just throws four touchdowns. And now they have both their wide receivers hurt. It's going to be different heading in the last two weeks of the season. If you reduce 10 turnovers next year,'s an elite quarterback wow right i mean right like that sounds like you're agreeing with like if he threw like if he threw for let's say he threw for for 4500 yards 35 touchdowns and 15 interceptions yeah it's a great year you'd say it's a great season right so i i think that the tamp Tampa Bay should pay him for one more season and just try to find a way.

Now, of course, saying that you can just find a way to not have him throw. By the way, he will throw for 5,000 yards this year. He's been bombing it, but that's part of the reason. He leads the league in pass yards. Also attempts. Yeah, and his yards per attempt have gone up this year good. The interceptions are just – and this is by far the most he's ever thrown. It's also, of course,

like I mentioned, the pass attempts. If he cut down on 10 of these, and let's say he threw 17 interceptions, and he threw 36 touchdowns. Let's say he throws six more in the final two weeks. 5,000 yards. That's a guy you can work with. Now, the issue becomes obviously through five years now he's thrown 82

interceptions, and he's fumbled the ball a bunch. I'm not as concerned about some interceptions. Some are okay. You try and third down, third in forever, you're throwing the ball deep. It's okay to throw. The idea that a quarterback

is good because they don't throw interceptions I think is really a poor argument. I put it with Alex Smith. He didn't throw much interceptions, but he wasn't a guy to win you a Super Bowl. I love Alex. He was never going to win you a Super Bowl. It's okay to be aggressive. Aggressiveness leads to interceptions. It's fine.

These are too many, though. So if he cuts down on them, I'd pay him, dude. I'd pay him for another year if I were Tampa. Okay, so then the question also becomes, there's a lot of pretty big-name quarterbacks who could be moving around this offseason. Some we can laugh at the idea, like Eli, but others like... Eli's retiring.

Well, some people think maybe not. The way he's talking and the way his family's been going to these games, and now he's 117 to 117, he's done. Okay. There's also Phillip Rivers. Yeah, he needs to retire. There's also your boy Cam Newton. There's some other guys who've had resurgences

or been pushed to the bench who are going to be moving around. So there's a dozen quarterbacks out there who are considered comparable to Jameis Winston in terms of ability. Would you say he leads the class now? If you need a quarterback in free agency, isn't he the number one guy? Isn't he ahead of Cam? Teddy Bridgewater might be number one. You take Bridgewater over Jameis.

When you just told me that not throwing picks is kind of not a big deal. Yeah, but Bridgewater does the other things well too. Oh boy. Jameis 25. If you compare his season when he's 25 to Peyton's when he's 25 identical statistically different errors um oh boy I would go probably Teddy Jameis healthy Cam Noon Ryan Tannehill so Cam gets to have an asterisk a healthy yeah he is who he is yeah but he's not healthy he's no there's no point in playing with him okay I i want jamis losing 10 pounds and and not being so sloppy with the ball can i put that

asterisk on him like what my point is injuries are injuries are a huge part of this if cam is only 75 he's not i wouldn't sign him but if he's close to 100 i'd sign him i mean that's a big difference he's been good when he's been healthy. He's been good when he's been healthy and he's been bad when he's been injured. I think what I want to know is, should Jameis Winston be the quarterback of the Jets next year? I'll let you think about that.

Sam Darnold is a good quarterback. He's going to be fine. Your hatred, you're a UFC guy too. You should be rooting for Sam Darnold. We've been down this road. Let's move the line, Jeff. It's a little over-under game we play where i give you uh some things to think about and bet on most of these are not real occasionally i slip in a real

one but here goes odds lamar jackson sits the second half and ruins fantasy seasons for people all over this country 75 chance um i would say that there's a chance that he in in this you mean in this this game right this coming week um that's a lot of people's deciding week i think that he will play the whole game really yeah um for what unless unless uh the number one seed that's why yeah but what does he need to play the whole game for? These games have mostly been over by halftime. Well, I think the Browns blew him out the first time, and they were celebrating on their field. I think they want to rub it in the Browns' face.

The Browns have quit. Are any of those guys even going to turn up at the game? No, but the second half is most quarter. You're not pulling the quarterback at halftime most of the time either. I think he'll play part of the third quarter at least. He might sit in the fourth quarter. So I would say that this is a near 100% he'll play in the second half. Okay.

Let's move along. Chances Aaron Rodgers finishes second place in MVP voting. I'm calling it 50-50. Which side are you on? I would say he does not finish second place. I think you're going to have Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson. Okay. Very much like one-two. Unless Rodgers, Monday Night Football

this weekend against the Vikings has an amazing game. He just, he hasn't played this season up to his talent level. And that's, I think, the concerning part about his place. I don't think he's anywhere near getting any first place votes. I would say

that this is, i would say that this is i would say you know 50 sports writers i'd say lamar jackson gets 45 of these votes i i think that he's that second place might be two votes i think that's russ and i think russell wilson would take those two votes i don't know man i so aaron rogers to me has felt like the it's the least talked about Aaron Rodgers season of his whole career he was talked about more when he didn't play behind Brett Favre than he gets talked about now because he's just been okay this year that's why well he's been better than okay I mean he's the stats are there the wins are definitely there he's doing it with a new coach and a slightly overhauled team no number one receiver for most of the year

i mean it's not hard to make a case why he and russell are even i get it lamar is the winner but we're that's why we're not debating that but you know for if somebody's going to get two or three votes after lamar takes the bulk i think aaron rogers could be one of them and i only think it's because we've been ignoring him that we aren't saying this more often. So Rodgers would have like, so you think people are going to vote Rodgers over Russell Wilson? I think that I probably would, but it's close. So I think that, like you said, 45 for Lamar, and then somebody else gets two or three votes, and I think it's Rodgers, not Wilson.

And I think it's refreshing because people are like, normally Aaron Rodgers is so forced on us. I usually go the other way. Normally it's like, calm down. Okay, he didn't throw very many interceptions. Relax. But Wilson's numbers are better. More yards, more touchdowns, higher completion percentage.

Okay, but look at what Rodgers is doing it with. A bunch of nothing. Who does Seattle? Seattle had Will Disley. Will will disley tied in had 25 catches in college feels like a total shade thrown at will disley out of nowhere well he's a he's a washington husky he's driving in the facility right now mind his own business he was all into your fantasy team talk he was having a great time and then you just trashed him he's a he's a uh he's a washington husky he's used to it you should have picked him up on your fantasy team he's a he's a uh he's a washington husky he's used to it you should have picked him up on your fantasy team he's been hurt for like eight weeks do you do

you refuse to have washington huskies on your team no i would take someone to win a game i wish i could fade my team there's no way to fade my team well it sounds like there's 11 other guys in your league it's a huge league it's like 14 it's 14 team league it's all right i'm gonna figure out who we kick out of my league to get you in. All right. Let's get into another one. This one's a pretty real topic because you feel like you always have something bad to say about this team that just keeps winning. Bill's playoff wins.

Over, under. One and a half. Under one and a half. So let me pull out my notebook here. Oh, God. Where's he going? So I wrote this. I was going to tweet this yesterday, but I just didn't do it because-

Instead, you wrote it down in a binder? No. No. I was going to write it down anyways because I was going to look at Josh Allen's stats this year because people are just absolutely crazy about Josh Allen. So you ready? So if I told you that a quarterback of a playoff team can play 31% of passes, had adjusted yards per attempt at 24, had a QBR of 26, his rating was 23rd, his EPA was 30.

Yeah, I know. Boring as can be. I don't even know what most of those things are. Josh Allen has not been good this year. You're not going to win two playoff games with a subpar quarterback. Yeah, they might win one game because their defense is really, really good. Their defense is elite. Their offensive line is good.

Their run game is good. They might win a playoff game because of that. They are not winning two playoff games with a quarterback who is below average. Do you think that anyone wants to play the Bills? No, because their defense is really good. The reason why is their defense keeps games close enough to where things can get really weird at the end. And he is a weird quarterback who, despite his adjusted yards, whatever the hell stat you— He's not very good. His EPA isn't very good.

Who cares? The guy can pull a drive out of his butt anytime he wants. What if you play the Chiefs, for example, and the Chiefs score, I don't know, 24 points? The Bills are not winning that game. Okay, but they have to score the 24. But you can't just hand them 24. They've got to put 24 up against that defense. But the Chiefs have shown they can score against any defense.

You go to Kansas City to But the Chiefs have shown they can score against any defense. Like, are you going to hold them? Like, you go to Kansas City to play the Chiefs. You expect to hold them to how many points to have to win that game? 17? Good luck.

I mean, like, that thing is, like, you have to hold the other team to a certain... They don't score points. They only have 23 points a game in their wins. And that includes some scores on defense.

Like, I just don't think they can score enough on offense. Do you think... Is it fair to say that the Bills, if you want to pick an AFC East champion in 2025, do you like the Bills or the Patriots? You have to pick it now.

The Bills. Okay, so you like them long. Look, I think Sean McDermott's a fabulous coach. Their scouting department's doing well. They're bringing in great players. They're developing them. They've improved the offense. The one thing holding them back is quarterback.

They've literally overhauled the team entirely since he got there. Yes. Every single guy. And I give them full credit for that. Their defense is great. Like I said, their offense aligned. Their running game. Josh Allen's just not good enough to win a Super Bowl.

Okay. I'm this close. This close to jumping on Bill's bandwagon for good. You're a Jets fan. Yeah, well, I was. I'm almost there, man. Beat the Patriots this weekend, fellas. Bill's Mafia.

I'll be diving through tables with you. All right. A couple more to go. I want to know size. You just made one. Size heard on the Browns' sideline this past week. Over under 300. There's another report out this morning, late last night,

Over under 300. There's another report out this morning, late last night, that the Browns players asked a team three weeks ago to be traded to them. It is an absolute dumb—I've been wrong about the Ravens this year. I was 100% right about the Browns. More teams, the Bears too, by the way. The Browns are a complete dumpster fire. And for them to come out before the game and say that Freddie Kitchens is safe,

when Freddie Kitchens, it's been terrible. They no-showed against the Cardinals this week. Cardinals are not a good team. Cardinals entered this game 7-31 of the combined record of the teams they'd beat. They were not a good football team. No, they stink. The Browns did not look ready at all.

So to me um i just i did everyone wants out and they probably won't get it they might get a new coach who wants that job though anything about i know someone's going to take the job if it's open but if you're a good coach why do you want that that job? Well, if you vibe with Baker Mayfield. You have a general manager who seems to over, you know, basically control the entire roster, who doesn't really understand how to build the team because he just got a bunch of sarny parts and no offensive linemen.

An ownership that doesn't seem to understand how to run a team properly. I mean, look, you have the owner's wife. Well, she's an owner. She's part owner. Wearing a Miles Garrett beanie after he, you know, beat the crap out of me. Come on, folks. Like, come on, guys.

Like, they don't, they're just, they've always been this way. Unless it changes at the top, they're never going to succeed to the level that they expect to succeed to. Okay. Well, if there's some shot. I mean, how many Super Bowl championships have bad owners?

Well, I don't know because, you know... The Patriots win all of them. The stupid Patriots win them all. And I guess we have to grade, you know, what we consider a good owner a little differently. Dude, come on. Dude was just going to a massage parlor, all right? I have held back for all the times we've talked about this team

and their behavior and their character. I've never brought that up. Yes, you did. You mentioned earlier, so the owner gets in trouble. Yeah, well, he runs the team. He's responsible for all the rules they break. We both know that's what you meant. I didn't say that.

I didn't say that. See? Yeah, that's what he meant. That's what he meant. Yes, thank you. You can delete that file if you want. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. See? Yeah, that's what he meant. That's what he meant. Yes, thank you. You can delete that file if you want. I didn't do it. If you think I did it, you can delete the file.

They have, and then browsers have terrible ownership. All right, let's move on to the last one. Jeff, this is a personal one. You're here in LA. You sound great. You look great. So I want to know if we go out to dinner tomorrow night, as I hope we will, how many tacos will you eat tomorrow night in LA? Over will um how many tacos will you eat

tomorrow night in la over under five and a half you think people are going to show up and bother us if i give away where we are yeah people are going to come on us son you get your autograph no they're not um well soft tacos i mean it's your choice does that really make a difference on the number yeah i mean yeah i've uh i've lost some weight recently so i might look good i might put some on tomorrow um five and a half soft tacos yeah i'll probably eat over that um because i'll probably order like three to start and then three more so probably i'd go with six that's over is the reason because like a taco platter you're saying twice yeah but is it because you wanted them to be hot when they come out? Because you know you're going to get to. But also, maybe I just have a lot of chips.

I'm just like full. So I'll end with one last story because I drove by yesterday. Don Antonio's on Pico. My brother and I went there many years ago. And we sit down and I order first. I say, I would like the fajitas for two. And the dude starts walking away. We're like, no, no, no, no, no.

I want the fajitas for two, and he wants the fajitas for two. The guy was like, you want double fajitas? I said, yes, yes, I want them, and he wants them. He said, all right, and he brought us both double fajitas. And you ate them all, I assume. Of course we did. Yeah.

Let's end on a social mailbag. So this one's a little confusing, so just fill in the gaps here but um our buddy jeremy allen jeremy allen diaz jeremy diaz here's what jeremy wants to know good for the players why would anyone trust a team doctor also the stat about 25 of grievances filed by jags players is insane this is based on a whole big story to do with the nfl winning a grievance against the jags over fines for missed quote-unquote mandatory off-season medical appointments a confusing story that guys like you who play in the league probably get passionate about can you help us understand it yeah so um in the off-season you don't have

to be at the facility right now guys that are hurt are encouraged to stay at the facility and do their treatment. And pretty much, I think when a lot of people, when a lot of players hear that, they think it's mandatory. It's really not. You don't have to do your rehab there. So Jacksonville was fining a player $700,000 for missing mandatory rehab sessions that were not mandatory.

And so that's why they got fined. Do you feel like – And what's funny is Coughlin let me do my rehab when I was in New York, like away from the – I did it in Arizona, in Charlotte. It showed back up when I broke my leg. Do you think that certain players are treated differently, that they gain a certain amount of trust? Oh, 100%.

Yeah, I think this is probably a younger player who the team did not trust to do their rehab on their own yeah i was in my seventh year and i was like i told him where i was going to go i went to a reputable place in arizona to get it done and so they probably just didn't trust this player to actually do it yeah because i mean like i'm looking at zuri our producer he's been with us every week this year i've known zuri for a few years if zuri said to me hey man i'm gonna go edit this show from home i'll be like yeah man what beat the traffic go do your thing like of course yeah it happens yeah thank you thank you good yeah you got that trust now i throw some other guy in that seat no freaking chance you're sitting right there i'm gonna watch you edit this thing that makes sense that's how you manage things so i guess this is just more of

like a but NFLPA negotiated rule. But you can't fine him for it. No, I'm not taking a side on it. I'm just saying it makes sense that the boss would want to know that certain employees are doing what they say they're doing. That's all. I totally agree. Yeah. All right.

Jeff, it's been fun having you here. It's been awesome. I love doing this in person. I gotta come out to LA more often. I hope you do. And you're going to pop on some other big shows. Yeah. Bigger hosts than sitting opposite me. I don't know about that. One of them keeps changing the time.

So we'll find out when I actually show up. But nonetheless, thank you guys for tuning in. I appreciate the comments. I've gotten more lately. So obviously a lot of you guys are enjoying the show and engaging. We appreciate that and hope you enjoy it. iTunes, Google Podcast, wherever you find this podcast, Athletic, obviously, Athletic app. And we'll talk to you guys Thursday.

Take care. Honesty is the best policy, right? If you agree, check out my buddy D'Angelo Williams' podcast on The Athletic alongside fantasy expert Jake Seeley. Every Wednesday, D'Angelo gives you his most scorching takes from everything around and outside the NFL. He does not hold back, and you shouldn't either.

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