Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Changes Ahead: Cam Newton, NFL Draft & NCAA Eligibility

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

A week after the Carolina Panthers released Cam Newton, what's next for the MVP? Also, Roger Goodell says the NFL Draft will continue as scheduled and D1 NCAA athletes are presented with a new opportunity amid the pandemic. Cam Newton: (1:04) NFL Draft: (15:32) D1 NCAA Eligibility: (28:19) 'Move the Line' Betting Segment: (37:07) Tiger King: (48:13) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

from the athletic i'm jeff schwartz cam noon says he's no underdog the draft will continue as scheduled and some college athletes just got another year it's tuesday march 31st and this is jeff schwartz is smarter than you welcome in everyone hope you are trying to make the best of the stay-at-home orders and enjoying time with friends and family. I know it's a little difficult. Hopefully, we can provide you a little bit of entertainment for some time today. Gabe, how is quarantine life for you? It won't make anyone happy to hear me talk about quarantine life.

Let's talk about football. Let's do it. Glad football is still around. I know we've talked about this a lot but glad it's still here uh and we have things to talk about and today by the way like i mentioned at the top we're going to dip into college athletics a little bit i do a lot on the college especially the pac 12 side and some interesting things that could affect well it's going to affect spring sports but possibly on the football side if things don't happen as planned but let's start with uh with cam

newton yeah so listen cam newton is, the best free agent QB available, and B, not exactly getting this whole social distancing concept. So Cam, we know he was released by the Panthers. He posted a video of himself over the weekend throwing a ball to a bunch of wide receivers surrounded by all kinds of other dudes. One of the dudes is current Chargers quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Also, a quarterback coach is there with the two of them. This led to basically two hot takes. One, the Chargers should and probably are going to sign Cam Newton to be their new starting quarterback. And two, what the

hell are they doing? They shouldn't be hanging out together. Football players players you're just like the rest of us chill let's talk about that first point the other point i think is too obvious to talk about here cam to the chargers this is what everyone assumes is happening and he's it's a betting favorite there's not much to bet on right now but you can bet on on this as well um and look i think we covered this a little bit last week, maybe not in much detail. And it really comes down to what the Chargers want their future to be. So if you look at the draft this year, the Chargers draft sixth, and it's assumed that Joe Burrow from LSU goes number one,

and then Tuatango Valo, the quarterback from Alabama. And, look, he seems to check out physically. I know you can't get a physical or recheck in Indianapolis. And I'm sure teams will find a way to make sure he's healthy or not. I'm sure they'll call to Alabama and whoever he's working out with now to make sure he's fully healthy. But Tua should go before pick five. Either the Dolphins at pick five.

There's talk about the Chargers, and we'll talk about them more trading up to three. Maybe the Lions take him. Maybe the Redskins take him at two. But Tua and Joe Burrow will be gone. So at six, the Chargers are up. Chargers have a couple options to decide because Tyron Taylor is not the future for the Chargers.

He's not. He's a good placeholder for a year, but he's not the future. So they have to decide, look, there's two other quarterbacks that possibly can be drafted at six. Justin Herbert out of Oregon or Jordan Love out of Utah State. both of them have things they need to work

on both of them have tremendous physical gifts both of them have big strong arms Herbert's a little more polished now but maybe not as much upside people think I think they I think they're wrong on that Jordan Love a lot of potential not so, not so polished right now. The Chargers have to decide, do we want to take a quarterback at six for the future? If they do that, then I believe they're not going to sign Cam Noon, and Tyron Taylor will stay there to be the starter for a year or less, and then the new quarterback will come in and start, and Tyron Taylor will eventually be gone after the season.

He did that, obviously, a little bit with Nathan Peterman as they tried to get Nathan Peterman to play a little bit more in Buffalo. I think he did a little bit with Josh Allen, too. If they decide, the Chargers decide, hey, look, we don't like Justin Herbert. We don't like Jordan Love. We'd rather draft an offensive tackle at six. It's a great year for an offensive tackle. There's four guys who probably go to the top 12. Makai Becton from Louisville, Tristan Wurst from Iowa, Jedrick Wills from Alabama,

who's probably the best, the most ready, I think, out of those guys. Maybe Becton and then Andrew Thomas from Georgia. They all go to the top 12. The Chargers need a left tackle very badly. That's a huge hole in their roster right now. So they could say, look, we're going to sign Cam Newton. We're going to take a tackle at six. And we have a really good roster.

They've improved their offensive line. They had three pieces. They got Cam Newton. And then they end up with the added two pieces on defense. Well, Durbin James is healthy. They have the pass rush. And Hunter Henry is fantastic. It's a very good roster.

Back up. You said they got Cam Newton. That's sort of what I'm here to talk about. When did that happen? That's not the part that I'm – No, I'm saying if they decide to not go with a quarterback at six, get off tackle, then they will have signed Cam Newton. We're getting there.

I'm getting to the end of when they're going to sign him, in my opinion. Yeah, okay. All right. Okay, we're getting there. If they decide, hey end of when they're going to sign him, in my opinion. We're getting there. If they decide, hey, we're not going to draft one of those quarterbacks at six, then I think they draft a left tackle and sign Cam Newton, but it doesn't happen

until after the draft because I think they're still deciding whether or not to take quarterback or not, what they want to pay Cam Newton, but also they might want to draft Justin Herbert really badly at six and someone drafts him ahead of the Chargers. And we obviously don't really know that. But when they sign Cam Newton after the draft,

we'll know they missed out on the quarterback they wanted or obviously just took a tackle at six. So the best place for Cam to start is San Diego, is Los Angeles. There's no other – I'm going to call them San Diego for the rest of my life, by the way. That's fine. Go for it. Yeah.

That's the only place right now Cam could go and be a bona fide starter is in Los Angeles. All right. I'm not going to jump on that last comment because I could probably name 15 teams where he'd immediately be a better option than whoever they have. No, come on. Yeah, but Gabe, you know this. Is that like the Jets, let's use your team for example. I love using the Jets. They've drafted Sam Darnold. They're going to give him one more year. Is Cam better than Sam Darnold right now? Yes. Fine. Okay. So that's why I'm saying it's not worth our time because even though he's better than the quarterback

in a lot of places, they can't just pay two quarterbacks and so they've got a guy they've got to try to make better the Jets are the perfect example there's a few other towns like that let's back up for a second though why is it so obvious that the Chargers would be better off drafting you know one of these second or third or fourth quarterback taken versus just signing 30 year old cam newton who i know he's been injured but like also managed to not take hits for most of the year you know like cam newton looks like he's ready to roll i mean the guy yeah that that idiotic video on instagram notwithstanding the dude looks beautiful right now i I mean, my Lord. He's doing a very different routine than the rest of us here in quarantine. He looks phenomenal.

I think there's concern, obviously, about his health for a guy who's been out of the league for basically a year and a half. Not out of the league, but not been healthy for a year and a half now. And there's concern, obviously, that how healthy he's going to stay. And so that is a concern is that, look, what can we get in first of all again the can that completes 60 of passes or the can that did you know complete 67 of passes for the first eight games of 2018 so what what can are we getting as far as the player and what can we get as far as health and you can make the argument that look the chargers were that right now they need to just draft the young quarterback and build up the roster around

that quarterback with that quarterback on that rookie contract and go from there. You could also make the argument that, look, they're very talented right now. All they need is a veteran, a veteran quarterback who's done it before, who's been successful. And like I said, draft that left tackle and you're pretty much set. So it depends on what the Chargers want to do. I don't think there's a right or wrong position if you're the Chargers. If they feel that Justin Herbert is going to be transcendent talent, then draft Justin Herbert. If they don't, sign Cam Newton.

Yeah, I mean, it's just hard for me to believe that you have better odds in the next few years when it's important that they win now, that you'd have better odds with the guy who kind of underperformed in the Pac-12, who's never done it before, and a few years ago was in high school, versus the guy who a few years ago was an mvp and has shown the capability five years ago now capability of

being a top five quarterback in the league and still isn't old so this just feels like one of those kids you you've talked me into this before like gms talk themselves into things like the obvious answer is sitting right in front of us. The guy is a world-beating quarterback. He's great. You know he's great. Why would we go for the unknown and not even Burrow or Tua? Why would we go for the third-best unknown

versus one of the best free agent quarterbacks who's come up in years? If I were the Chargers, I probably sign cam noon and draft and draft the left tackle because the left tackles in this class probably in my opinion have better grades than justin herbert jordan love would have and so if you're if you're going off best player available which a lot of teams draft by you take a tackle you take a tackle it's a need position for you you probably get the first or second choice of tackle. I mean, the Giants at four might take a tackle. I don't know.

I mean, Dave Gettleman, who knows what he's going to do. The Dolphins at five, probably not taking a tackle. The Lions at three are definitely not, and the Redskins don't need one either. So you're going to get your choice of first or second tackle, and they'll have a better grade than will Justin Herbert in my opinion or Jordan Love unless they're very high on those two players higher than than most are so if you're going best player available then yes you draft a left tackle and then sign Cam after the draft because again that feels like the only spot right now where he'd come in and he would clearly be the starting

quarterback if he goes to Jacksonville he's much in my opinion, than Gardner Minshew, but they feel like they like Gardner. Are they going to sit Gardner? There's not a lot of places, in my opinion, where it feels like an absolute. Even though Tyrod Taylor has done a decent job when the starter, but he's not as dynamic as Cam Newton. So Cam, I think, would start right away there. Yeah, I don't know.

I just think there's something about cam um that we've been hearing about how great he is for so long that we're just convincing ourselves like he's washed or he's he's over the hill or he's problematic i don't know people come up with their words i i i don't see much evidence of the fact that Cam Newton isn't about to have a five or ten year run smashing this. Because he's injuries, injuries. There's not a lot of quarterbacks have been injured as much as him lately. All right. Well, I'm not a Chargers fan.

I don't think I'm jumping on the Chargers bandwagon anytime soon. I do have to watch them a lot when I'd prefer to be watching other teams. I would be happy to watch them if they signed Cam Newton. I don't give a crap about them if they signed Justin Herbert and a left tackle. Come on. This is their chance. They would not draft a left tackle in the first round if they drafted Herbert. Sign a left.

Whatever. The point is I'm not tuning in happily to Dan Fouts on CBS when I'm getting tired of Taylor and a left tackle or Justin Herbert and no left tackle that that ain't doing it for me this is their chance to get Cam Newton they should do it that's I'm representing myself and all of sensible Twitter right now it just makes all of Los Angeles all of Los Angeles yeah but I mean also here and we can move on to the draft which is obviously a big part of all of the calculus here in LA but like also isn't there something to be said for just being a desirable team a team that has some star power to it and you know we saw last year with Jalen Ramsey who basically forced his way to LA right I mean it's more complicated than that but he got himself out of Jacksonville and in LA

thinking that being in LA would be good and being on the Rams would be good if the Chargers start to get some juice couldn't we see some other great players just wanting to like make their way to LA either through free agency or trade like couldn't there be some momentum if you just sign one of the biggest stars in recent history well in in Los Angeles you know this very well. I am from Los Angeles. Star power is huge when it comes to sports. There's so many things to do in Los Angeles

that if you don't have a star or you're not winning, no one's coming out to see you. So there is argument to be made that Cam Noon is a star in the NFL, and if the Chargers are looking for people to come and sit in the new stadium, which might be delayed now. I don't know what's going to happen.

They're actually the only stadium I know of that's still being built. Oh, okay. They're still being built. Okay. Apparently not being delayed. That's the latest that I know of. Construction is still in Charlotte too, so maybe it's still allowed there as well. Oh, I don't know if it's allowed, but I'm read today that they're still building.

Keep going. as well i don't know if it's allowed but i'm read today that they're still building keep going so so to get people into that big old stadium by the way is it an obligation gabe that every media member who flies into los angeles must post a picture of the stadium being built yes it's like an it's it's it's i was wondering that's always explained on the flight yeah then they come around and they know you work in the media so they they bring like a little card to you and they tell you when when the touchdown is so they bring like a little card to you and they tell you when the touchdown is coming. That's why you always get not a window seat, a middle seat, so you have to sort of shoot that awkward photo like over some guy's shoulder and you sort of zoom in so it's kind of grainy and you see a little bit of wing in it. Yes, that's required of all of us.

You're like, I want to sit on the right side of the plane, please. Yeah. Make sure you get that picture as I fly to LA. That's right. sit on the right side of the plane please yeah make sure you get that picture as i fly to la um so so everyone uh you know i i think if you if you're looking for stars to be in los angeles i think cam noon would fit that role better than justin herbert would kind of would be reluctant i think to be that type of star personality so yes if your goal is to get people in the seats then cam noon also helps with that as well i didn't mean those types of people i meant actual players i referenced jalen ramsey i mean guys who the players want to come to la to

play with cam yeah or yeah or see the team as being relevant the same way the rams became relevant in the last few years well i mean that becomes that's winning though winning does that and so whoever the chargers feel can win for them i mean mean, winning does this for everybody. Winning is the reason why players want to get traded places. Winning in lifestyle and money. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know. No one's being asked to be traded to Cincinnati. It's winning.

Okay. Jacksonville was winning a few years ago. I don't remember too many guys clamoring to get to Jacksonville, but fair enough. They won for one season. All right. Let's move to the draft where the players don't have a choice in where they end up. They just get picked. Are you one of these draft truthers who thinks that there should be no draft?

No. Is that a movement of people? I've never even heard of that idea. Yes. Yes. There's people that feel like on the NBA side more like it's like – I don't want to use the word. The people feel like there shouldn't be a draft.

It's unfair for players to have to be drafted to a place they don't want to play for. I see. So then everyone is a free agent? Basically, yeah. I can tell that this is an odd theory and loaded. It's a Twitter. It's 100% a conversation people only have on Twitter.

Yeah, I think i kind of get where you're going uh with this one i think we'll just yeah we're not doing this one we're staying yeah we are yeah all right so let me let me talk about the nfl draft i'm sure people have lots of problems at the nfl draft but maybe not the one you're bringing up here's the deal um it was supposed to be in vegas this year It was supposed to be a massive event. We already know the football operations. Not only that, Commissioner Roger Goodell is telling every team with concerns to basically keep that to themselves, aka no leaks to the media about your issues with the draft going on as scheduled. That was in a memo that he sent to everyone just a couple days ago. So the easiest take right now about the NFL draft is Goodell is again being a dictator and basically ignoring the wishes of GMs and

coaches in favor of owners basically just because he can is that a fair take on things like or people just piling on Goodell because it's easy to pile on Goodell because Goodell frankly doesn't make himself the most likely guy in the world in these situations I think this is an interesting topic. So should Goodell have said that publicly? No, but I also think that NFL GMs and front office personnel should just shut up and do their jobs because a lot of us are working from home right now. A lot of us are doing jobs that are more difficult to do from home and we're trying to make it work. A lot of people that are out of jobs now that don't have an income that would love to try to make it work from home, but they can't do it. I feel the NFL GMs are really out of touch

complaining about having to do things a little differently than usual. Like guys, everyone else is making it work. They're Zoom conference, they're Zooming, they're calling people, they're making it work from home. You have a job right now and your job is to prepare your team for the draft. You can do it from home. You have the film right now, and your job is to prepare your team for the draft. You can do it from home. You have to film at home. And I think it's really out of touch to complain about not being able to do your job to the same degree. We're all in this together, guys. No one's at work right now.

And I just think it's really – I don't – Gadel probably shouldn't have said that, but I think he 100% has a point. Okay, so that's an interesting way to respond. So basically, no matter what he says at this point, right or wrong, a huge percentage of football fans and folks certainly on Twitter are going to jump all over him and criticize him. No matter what. No matter what. Okay, so let's separate what he said from who said it.

And you're saying that the gms who apparently according to sources wanted a delay and are now upset that they won't get a delay need to just adjust so let's talk about that adjustment what what is more difficult about their job right now i i think i know what they should be doing right now i i think they would be traveling around i think they would have gone to pro days that were canceled i think that they would have had more face-to-face meetings with potential draftees. They certainly would have been able to convene their guys and watch film together and do things in groups.

All of those things are out the door. What practical difference does that make? Well, I think just being in the room together talking about players is the biggest concern. I think not being able to have the top 30 visits where you fly in 30 players and just to talk to them and get to know them a little bit better. They're probably upset.

They can't do that. I think there also is the medical issue with a couple of guys that need medical rechecks or that, you know, you have medical issues. And so you are, you know, you're,

you're just, you can't, you can't finish that process, but this is really going to shine a light in my opinion on the teams that have veteran scouts who trust the film, who aren't so enamored with numbers and spreadsheets, people that trust their gut and trust the film and those teams will succeed. The teams that rely on too many other things are going to have a really tough draft.

So basically, if you're good at this already, you're about to get an even greater advantage. Yes. Yes. In my opinion. Yes. So this means like the Patriots are going to have a great draft this year is what you're telling me. Yes. But I mean, look, I'm writing an article for SB Nation.

It should be out probably tomorrow about pro days and how it's hurting, in my opinion, lower round draft picks, rounds kind of 5, 6, 7 undrafted for agent guys. I talked to a scout about it, and he's like, look, we're doing Zoom conference calls. I'm not at Pro Day. There are certain guys who I'd like to see with my own eyes at Pro Day, whether they've improved or they were hurt at the combine, but that's not happening.

But we go back and watch the film, and it comes down to the film. And so that, to me, again, it's the film. It's always the film. And we're going to see teams that have relied on that process for a long period of time do really well. And the teams that worry about numbers and how fast the guy runs are going to have a really hard time in this process. So it's going to be really interesting.

An agent, a friend of mine I talked to, he put this pretty well. He said that like a fifth and sixth rounder that were overdrafted because they had good combine numbers, the kind of average players that tested really well at the combine, they're going to fall way back on the draft now because no one's going to look at those numbers like they used to. They're going to look at the film now and really dig into if this guy's good or not. So that to me feels like the big change in the draft process yeah because it seems to me from what you're describing that you know the teams that spot the best players are the ones that are stuck in front of their screens just dying to consume as much video content as

possible um i'm guessing that they're all like us like they they watch tiger king and then they're right back to watching film of some random you know pack 12 linebacker yeah yeah so i mean you know the teams who are good at watching film it seems like we'll spot the better gems now i'm just like they get on your fantasy draft like the guy who's been studying it all summer and watches football usually does a little better in the draft than the guy who like bought a magazine at CVS on the way to draft night. Yeah. And go ahead. I, I,

I would say the last point here for me, at least is that this is a kind of another example, my opinion of NFL personnel being not very flexible. It's kind of just the way it's been like older NFL people, just like, there's not very flexible, right? I'm going to do it my way.

Cause we've always done it this way. It's like, okay, there's a change. The world has changed for maybe a couple months, maybe many months. Like get on board. Get on board. It's changed. Get over it. Yeah.

This is where we are in the world right now. Well, okay. So to that point, a couple quick follow-ups on the draft. So apparently, according to sources, Peter King, I think, couple quick follow-ups on the draft so apparently according to sources Peter King I think reported first that the idea of having to host the draft from his home is a worst case scenario for Roger Goodell that he he does not want to do it that way that they want to have some kind of a set they want to have like a little bit more presentation a little bit bigger of a deal than just what we've been getting used to on TV of like everyone Skyping in.

I don't know how I feel about that attitude. I feel like I think I'm with Rich Eisen who basically said, and I'll just quote Rich Eisen, what better way to communicate the necessity to stay inside to stop the spread of coronavirus than the commissioner of the NFL announcing picks alone from his house in New York? I think I'm with Rich on this. Like,

where do you come down on this? He should, you know, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be via like the, you know, the webcam we have by Logitech. No,

let's do a little better than that. Yeah. Like, so that, you know, they bring in the camera, the remote camera that people are using at ESPN right now at all their houses.

And he's in his living room. It'd be even better if he was in sweatpants. Announcing it. That would be awesome. You imagine like the deal with a hoodie and sweatpants on, just like, just like having a beer in his hand and be like, all right,

the first pick of the draft, the Cincinnati Bengals select Joe Burrow, LSU. That'd be amazing. Yeah. That'd be good. If there was just those, all those little Skype things that go wrong for the rest of us.

Like, suddenly people are just like, you know, the Vikings forget to mute their line, and we're hearing them talk about who they're about to pick, and everyone's screaming at them on Zoom. Yeah. Which team would be the most likely to not mute their Zoom call? I mean, well, first of all, if they do it on Zoom, the Patriots will be able to hear everyone even if they are muted.

That's just one thing for sure. Oh, here we go again with this Patriot slander. No, it's funny. My wife goes on a Zoom call every morning at 730, not Zoom, a conference call for work. And, of course, there's like two families that never mute their call. Today, my son had a Zoom, and then we had a parents thing afterwards. And one of the parents, you could hear like yelling at their kids shut up right now it's like mute your mute your things we don't want to hear you we don't want to hear you understand we all have kids running around

the house we get it the default should be mute for everyone nfl draft or otherwise it should be on mute until you decide you want to talk that would save everyone um last thing on the draft before we move on to to a topic that's a little different for us. So just this, this was put out there by a guy named Andy Herman covers mostly the Packers. This is just an idea. I don't think he's, he's not presenting this as something he's reporting. So I just want to reference it though, because it had me intrigued. He says, this is a tweet, random thought. If the Bengals felt 2020 wasn't going to be played, would they pass on Joe Burrow

to draft Chase Young and then select Trevor Lawrence number one in 2021 now there's a few assumptions in there but that's an interesting thought we are getting soon getting to a place where we have to wonder about the NFL season yeah could that change draft strategy definitely but I I think I know we talked about this i think last week the week after i was i'm pretty positive the nfl will still will still happen i think it will start on time i think there is concern about whether or not um you know there's this the virus comes back heavy in in the fall and we have to delay some time in the fall but i think they're going to try to start on i mean every indication so far they've done everything on time obviously

hasn't had to be in person uh but they've had many months you know they'll have many months by the time training camp rolls around to figure it out i think they're going to try to get it in and i don't think the bangles will draft it with that in mind but it's definitely fascinating so every team just goes on the same basic assumption that all right we're going to be playing football this fall we build our team to get better this season we're not taking an off year like you think they have to go with this season. We're not taking an off year. Like you think they have to go with that assumption or they'd be taking a pointless chance.

Yes. Okay. All right. Well, last thought this, and I'm going to summarize a tweet from Schefter and just people are talking about in general, because some of these delays,

because the, the lack of activity and free agency, some of the calendars, a little bit activity in free agency some the calendar's a little bit off that free agency and the draft aren't working quite like they always do do you think that we could see any changes in the draft because there are these guys who aren't yet signed just can you walk me through how those two ideas that typically don't overlap much now might be a problem you mean nfl players that haven't agreed to terms or just nfl players that haven't actually officially signed their contracts yeah exactly so if if a guy has

not really locked in his deal when the player is drafted at the same position so i'm not talking about superstar guys that we would we would well yeah i mean i mean it's possible yeah you're a veteran guy you signed a mid-level deal. You haven't officially put your John Hancock on the contract yet because you haven't been able to get physical, and they reneged on the deal. Yeah, it's definitely possible. I didn't think about that, but, I mean, NFL teams are ruthless. I'm sure it happened one time.

Yeah. All right. Well, I mean, I hope that doesn't become much of a story, but it's unprecedented territory where people don't have business as usual. And we aren't going to get into it maybe until next week. But, you know, like Eric Reid right now is is asking the players basically filed a lawsuit asking the players to blow up their agreement with the CBA and re-vote because he claims and others have supported the idea that, you know, the league actually sort of changed some of the language after the players had agreed to it and that it impacts former players and the benefits they're entitled to. It's pretty detailed and nuanced and not really worth our time right now, but it's all because people are doing things in ways that they've never done them before. And, you know, this does throw everything off. So I'm just curious if like a few weeks from now,

we'll be talking about stories in the NFL that we've never really had to figure it out before. There is no precedent for, and draft overlapping with free agency in new ways could be one of those issues. All right, Jeff, let's shift from the draft to college sports. Obviously, people have probably heard the news.

The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all athletes playing spring sports. So, you know, guys who are playing baseball, softball, track and field, a number of different sports are affected by this. This does not mean anything for winter sports. So specifically for this show, this doesn't change anything about football yet but if you know and we hope this doesn't happen if the season the football season gets pushed back this is an indication that maybe you know the NCAA will work with teams and players to give them another year of eligibility too so I guess my question to you Jeff really is like what's your reaction to

this news whenever the NCAA does anything people kind of freak out and act weird. This one seemed like all good news for most of the takes that I was reading. But what is your take on the news today? Yeah, so look, it's no surprise that NCAA is doing this for the spring sports, football, baseball, and softball, and track and field. They're allowing seniors to come back if they would like, and they are basically eliminating roster size and scholarship size, scholarship restriction, I should say, for the sports for 2020.

But they're also with the caveat that the schools are not required to give them the same compensation that they had the previous year. So if you are a baseball player and you're getting, let's say, a 35% scholarship because no one gets a full scholarship in baseball and the team says, look, we're going to have you back. We're only giving you 25% because that's the minimum that we're allowed to give you. Or maybe they say, look, we're not giving you anything.

You could be a walk-on now. And schools will determine that as we go. And look, I think it's a really good idea for the NCAA. I'm not sure how practical it actually might be when you look at, let's say, baseball, for example. 50-man roster now. You've already recruited a bunch of new players. So schools will have decisions to be made of who to keep and who to not. But generally speaking, Grady, now for the football side, it's pretty fascinating.

Because I think we're moving to a point, Gabe, where the football season is a little bit more in question. Right now, we're having kind of a national lockdown until April 30th. If kids cannot come back by May 1st, in my opinion, or May 15th and start working out again at their facilities, and really the Pac-12 said no one's allowed back until May 31st. The season's in jeopardy, folks, because it's not so much the virus why the season would be delayed. It's because players are not in shape. They're not ready to play. The reason why you work out and the reason why you get in shape

is obviously to perform at a high level, but to not get hurt. If you are able to function at a high level with your body, you have less chance to get hurt and you can perform at a higher level. your body you're less chance to get hurt and you can perform at a higher level you can be quicker faster stronger all that if you miss that opportunity with the college side the pro side guys are doing their own home gyms i'm not worried about the pro so much but the college side more worried about that and so if there's a

football season that's either shortened or we don't have it at all, which would just be a train wreck for everything. Oh, my. Would the NCAA grant the same exemptions on the football side? And with those being full scholarships, Gabe, it would be really fascinating to see how those are covered, how football coaches decide to use those seniors possibly coming back. Are the juniors that might go to draft, do they not go to draft because they don't have enough film now from the recruiting side, which is the angle that you text me about?

It's recruiting. If you're USC, do you bring seven seniors back and then recruit seven less freshmen? How's that going to work for all these colleges? Yeah, I don't quite understand all these position battles will get complicated. You know, let's look at the big name schools. Obviously, this affects a majority of athletes out there who are not football players. And even in football, it's a ton of guys who, you know, I will probably never hear of, right? Because they won't make it to the next

level. Or even if they do, they won't be stars. So, but let's look at those big name guys in the situations that have grown more regular i think where you know two five star guys or three five star guys are getting piled up at a big school like ohio state right and when it becomes clear either coach says something or the guy just knows it's time yeah you know the second or third guy on the depth chart leaves transfer rules have changed recently in the ncaa that guy leaves like joe burrow ends up at lsu because he didn't think he was ever going to get the spot at ohio state it seems silly now but that was the choice he made and he won a championship how does this impact people's windows to do that when that decision would be made when they would

learn where they set up on the depth chart. Like, is that another ripple effect here? Well, it definitely is. And remember you're supposed to have a reason to transfer to then get, you'll get a waiver though. I don't think there's no free transfers, not really allowed quite yet. They're discussing it. So I don't know if you could just freely transfer anywhere you wanted and play the next season if this happened, but yes, it would affect,

I think it would affect the entire way college sports or really football does business because obviously we talked about the recruiting yes the transfers are guys going to transfer now or they're going to transfer to you know with a team that might lose a guy to the pros and then you fill that spot with a transfer, now that guy might stay at the school, and that transfer can't go to that place. It's kind of like your borough comparison. So I think it would change the entire way business is done if they granted the same eligibility to, on the football side,

if we missed a football season. Okay, so you mentioned business, right? And so that's sort of a trigger word when you're talking about the NCAA. Let's not forget, you know, these guys are still amateurs. Even though the player likeness is going to soon become a potential revenue stream for some athletes, those rules are evolving as we talk. Do you think that maybe another domino that could fall or a few

dominoes fall, maybe we could be in an area where the idea of paying athletes gets a little bit more tolerable, that this could be sort of the reason that people change their minds and suddenly people are more open-minded to the idea that, yeah, you know what, this is a big business. This is confusing. This is hard to manage without some income could this help that cause well that caused the name image of likeness the nil is happening i don't i don't think it's going to happen any sooner because of this i mean it's oh no i i'm not in favor of that either in my opinion um there's so many factors that go into paying athletes like that I do think that title nine would be an issue with that as well

um and have to work through through those problems I'm not sure I don't think players should be on payroll with you know like the back in the pony express smu days where guys are just getting checks every month um I don't think that this furthers that at all um but I do think that you could see a situation where, let's say, name, image, and likeness has got to happen sooner than later because states are, especially Florida, are supposed to ratify it this year at some point. California said 2023. So the NCAA is going to have to do something very quickly about this.

And, you know, you could see a situation where if you're a baseball or softball player or a football player and, you know, the school says situation where if you're a baseball or softball player or a football player and you know the school says we're not picking up your scholarship you're welcome to come back as a walk-on you know what a local business sponsor your directly sponsor scholarship now they now they can sponsor your scholarship through the school right they could give a donation to the school but now it could be directly to the individual we're going to give you two hundred thousand000, well, it'd be less than that, $40,000 to go to school and to pay for room and board. And I think $40,000 is probably even cheaper on the cheap end, whatever. They could

just sponsor kids directly now instead of going through the school. That to me is a really interesting way to look at how things might be changing. All right. Let's keep an eye on this one. I think, you know, it will be confusing and sort of like the NFL draft conversation of a moment ago. It's all unprecedented. Everyone should just keep a cool head. There's no reason you have to give people you don't trust the benefit of the doubt.

But I think we can all give it a day of, like, learning what the heck's going on before we just assume the bad guy is the bad guy again uh even bad guys get some stuff right sometimes so who knows maybe the ncaa and and the colleges and universities will all figure this out and athletes will benefit in the long run i could be naive but but i'm willing to wait a day or two to find out how i feel about this one um all right let's move the line what do you say let's do it all right well let's move let's move the line uh a little betting segment we do i think you probably hear my son in the background over under on me losing my mind at some point today. Take me on there. That'll take seconds when I step out of this room.

I want to know, over under Julius Peppers, his rank among the best defensive linemen you competed against, over under.5, is he your number one guy? Oh, yeah. Yeah, no doubt. Peppers is the toughest guy you ever blocked. Yeah, I had to block him for my first year in the NFL. Dude, he dominated me, dude.

Like, it wasn't even fair. And I wasn't very good, but still, it wasn't even fair. He is so physically gifted. He can beat you up the field, go through you, go inside. He can stop the run. An amazing defensive end. All right, let's stay with defensive ends For a second Over under chances that

Jadavion Clowney stays in Seattle 50-50 what are we looking at Well he's not signed yet I think it's less than 50% they want him back To get him back already Well what's the hold up this is what I don't understand I mean I keep clicking on articles looking for New information about free agency and his name keeps sitting at the top because

they didn't franchise him right no far as i know yeah um he's probably asking for too much money too many years i i i mean that's the only i haven't seen anything any leaks at all i mean it feels like that would be the the concern is he's asking for too much money in too many years. And he's had up and down performances. He's not always consistent. If he's playing as well as he can play, he's a very dominant force in the NFL and deserves the money he's going to get. But if he's going to be so up and down, you're going to get a lot of weeks

where he's not worth the money that you pay him. Well, that sounds like you're describing a lot of players, but okay. Right, but if he wants $19 million a year, teams aren't going to pay someone that money if they can't trust each week they're going to bring it. And that's what a lot of the holdup is. Yeah. Well, I don't have a strong opinion on him.

It seems like he's starting to feel like a nice fit in Seattle. I would assume that that's where this nets out, so I'm going to say that it's better than likely. but yeah, the money could be the holdup right now. And they might also just be waiting to see where things shake out. All right. Two silly ones before we leave. I want to know the highest rim Jeff can actually dunk on. We saw a video of you pretending to dunk on a 10 foot rim. That was not a 10foot rim. What's the highest rim you can actually dunk on? Over under 8.5 feet. Well, that was a 9-foot rim I dunked on,

so the answer's over. Ah, okay. That was 9 feet? You only dropped that one foot. You sure you're telling the truth? Yes. So you had a 10-foot rim, then through some clever editing,

the rims magically got lower as you drop-stepped jammed into it. Yes. 9-foot was no problem. You cleared it easy. Could we move that up to nine and a half uh what two foot drop step probably not i could try i could try this afternoon what's what's holding you back ankle injuries foot in my my fat ass with my whole my whole body i mean i didn't want to be one who said i had three ankle surgeries and i had a dislocated toe, and I'm fat.

I mean, yes, that's what's holding me back. I also had a 20-inch vertical at the combine. It's like one of the worst ever for offensive linemen. Wow. I've never been able to jump. So mine's probably even worse than that but that sounds really you're also not a football player i mean i wouldn't when i look at you i don't think wow great vertical jump no you shouldn't think that i i so i at one point in my life pretty easily could have dunked on an

eight and a half foot hoop i would say that i am the under on that i i don't know i mean if i'm being honest with myself the last time i tried to play basketball, I severely sprained my ankle playing in running shoes. I basically haven't been able to jump since. So, I mean, I'm impressed that you can get up on that nine-foot hoop. I just would have figured you could go a little higher. Let's get you to nine and a half. I'll try to do nine and a half this afternoon. I'll see what I can do.

All right. Don't hurt yourself. Here's the opposite of that question. There's a little bit of a meme going around. Who knows if McDonald's started this? But the tweet is a picture of basically four large sodas, two 10-piece McNuggets, two large fries, and what looks like four...

Double quarter pounders, right? Double quarter pounders with cheese. Yeah, so that's a rack of food. And the question is, somebody offers you $3,500 to finish everything on this tray in 90 minutes. Could you do it? Now, you joked that the only hard part would be the soda. Yeah. I saw a lot of you football guys just laughing at the premise of this question.

Like, obviously, I could finish all of that, not even a problem. So what if I doubled it? What if it's that same thing times two well when i played this would go down it's no problem i'd work out hard and go and go hammer this now i can never do this but um the soda is my biggest problem if you doubled it no probably not i think this would be a good amount. It's 3,500 calories. How many calories do you think this is? 7,000, 8,000? That's like 12,000 calories. Yeah, sorry. 3,500 is the money.

This is four meals at McDonald's. That's what this is. It's more like six, right? Well, you don't have the complete fries with all. Call it five meals. Okay, five meals. Sure. I had McDonald's, by the way, like two weekends ago. complete fries with all the kids call it five meals okay five meals sure um i had mcdonald's

by the way like two weeks two weekends ago we went to the beach and i got my kids a happy meal on the way back and i had a i think a quarter pounder dude oh my god i haven't had mcdonald's in years it was so good um double it no chance i could probably eat the food. When I was playing, I've had some big meals. I had, in high school, I could routinely, I'd routinely go to this all-you-can-eat sushi place and have like 80 pieces of sushi. So I've had entire pizzas before. I can eat a lot at one time.

Now, my brother, my brother could probably do this now. Like he is, he eats more than me in one meal. He just will eat like one giant meal a day. That's like 3,000 calories sometimes. You brought him up and in the context of food. And so I have to ask you something. You know, I follow him on Instagram now that we're buddies. I feel like I know him a little bit.

Yeah. He seems a little bougie when it comes to the food category. Oh, it's extremely bougie. Like, dude, you're grilling steak. I don't need to hear about, like, your miso glaze and all these fancy sides. What's he doing over there? He loves to cook. No, he's for sure a bougie cooker.

The food looks great, but, yeah, he's a bougie cooker. He's very – It looks wonderful. It looks like a restaurant. He's very – It looks wonderful. It looks like a restaurant. He's very particular in life. He's very meticulous. That's the way he plays, obviously, if you watch him play. And so, yeah, it's no surprise that –

But I'll tell you what, though. The actual – His favorite knife is the one I have at home. His stuff he likes is kind of cheap, some of the stuff that he uses to make the food. But yeah, it's very fancy Like his stuff he likes is kind of cheap. Some of the stuff that he uses to make the food. But yeah, it's very, very fancy food. Yeah.

Very fancy stuff. Gabe, he also has, think about this. He's quarantined with no kids and no sports on. Like he has plenty of time to cook. Like you just, oh God, the things I would do. Right? Like I told Meredith, I can cook really well too. And I feel like Mitch is outdoing me right now. So I told Meredith I can cook really well too and I feel like Mitch is outdoing me right now so I told Marith I'm like I'm gonna start my wife I'm gonna start cooking a

lot and then I just like haven't had time because I have kids yeah like it's like I just haven't had the time I'm I'm sitting here pondering ways to keep this discussion going about your brother cooking just so that I don't have to go face my reality right now. Like I would keep this going. Like, hey, Zuri's typing in some notes about the calorie consumption we're talking about with McDonald's. Why don't we break that down? Anything to not have to go out and do all the other stuff.

I can give you a good McDonald's eating story from a teammate of mine. So in Kansas City, we had a – we were way in Friday mornings, and then we had McDonald's on Friday mornings delivered to – a rookie would pick it up. And we had this guy named Reshawn Johnson. I think he's now coaching like tight ends at McNeese State or something. He's a good dude. And he was a young cat back then,

and he just wanted to eat a lot in the morning. So he weighed in. And we calculated he had about 4 000 calories of breakfast that morning he had like two mcgriddles an entire pancake breakfast like seven syrup packages and then like four hash browns and they went out and practiced and his stomach hurt of course at practice like what a surprise like 4 000 calories before practice wait it was disgusting and then he tried to like run around and yes and no well friday friday's not in pads but still it's it's called fast friday but still it's it it's awfully disgusting yeah that's hideous so zuri did the calculation that picture that's going around uh on the mcdonald's can you eat this in 90 minutes picture i know this is

audio so maybe not great but um we believe that's four double quarter pounders with cheese two large fries two 10 piece mcnuggets and four sodas that would be like 5740 calories yeah almost 6 000 calories if it's that kind of a meal. So bigger even than the meal that you ate. And you think you can easily do it within 90 minutes. No, no, no. I think when I played, I could have done it within 90 minutes. I could not do that now, no. You know why I couldn't do it now, Gabe?

It would take me a month to lose that weight. Yeah, well, I was going to say say the 90 minutes you spent eating it you'd have to quadruple that in the bathroom later that day and then yeah you'd have to 10 20 50 exit in the gym to try to get it off you again i mean that that's i mean it would take me it would take me 9 000 minutes to lose that weight well that's maybe. That's the problem. So maybe don't do it. Alright, well, I don't know if we're making anyone smarter any longer, so maybe it's time to wrap it up. But there's no football. We're trying our best. We're going to start doing top five

lists next week. Better get ready for that. We're getting close. Listen, you did make me smarter on Cam. I'm convinced though that the Chargers need to sign him. The options you outlined aren't good enough for me they go they got to go get camp uh you know you filled us in on what's really going on with gms and the draft and the fact that yeah you know even though people don't always like

the way goodell delivers the message in this case he's probably making making the right call and the gms need to sort of suck it up they're all in the same boat together and i think what you explained for us with uh college athletes was super interesting a nice break for just basic football talk so i had fun today thanks for making me smarter i had a great time too uh but yeah the uh the calories oh boy um and by the way if you have not watched tiger king uh go ahead and do that everybody yeah i'm all the way caught up oh you are so maybe we should spend some time next week on a little tiger king breakdown it was quite uh wow i'm i'm wondering if people will have moved on to the next thing by then i like Spent some time next week on a little Tiger King breakdown. It was quite a... Wow. I'm wondering if people will have moved on to the next thing by then.

Probably. But Carol killed her husband. That's all that really matters to know about the subject. Well, yeah. That was the part that my wife and I, when we ended it... Let's spend one more minute on this. When we ended the show, and sorry, if you're listening to this and care about tiger king and haven't gotten all the way to the end i guess spoiler alert like who are you this is

episode three but we're talking about episode three though this is episode three it was carol killer husband but what i'm gonna what i'm gonna say is at the end so at the end there's like a little you know very brief like here's where things stand kind of you know like they do with every documentary we kind of know wherever how did they not just say like okay by the way the da is looking into carol or whatever like well what evidence was left out well they did they start they started looking into her now right since it aired right but like how she seems very mean, we're not lawyers and we don't have all the facts, but from what was presented in this film, it seems like there's only one suspect, which is her. They said there's one suspect that was her, but there's just no, there's literally no physical evidence. There's nothing.

I mean, she disposed of the body. I don't think the tiger ate it, but the body's gone. Like it, whatever she did to him, he gone. But the body's gone. Like it, whatever she did to him, he gone. Well, the only alternative,

which I guess also makes sense when you watch all the episodes and sort of get to know what it would be like to live with Carol. You know, how much would you be willing to pay to disappear and not have that be your life? And it seems like Don Lewis is willing to give up a few million bucks. Well, that's the question.

I guess the question. I guess. The question isn't necessarily did somebody else kill him? It's did he just vanish on his own? And give up all his money and, like, give up his identity? Like, what, he just got a new driver's license somewhere? Like, what's he doing? Well, if he's sitting on a beach in Costa Rica with a new name and he figured out a way to tuck a few million dollars away

to live off of for however long he had left. It's distinctly Biden thought about that now distinctly, but that's possible. I think people do that all the time, but changing of his will to put disappearance before he disappeared was pretty much a dead giveaway in my opinion. Yeah.

And transferring all his assets and then like, just like him bouncing. I think he, she probably killed him and just dumped him in the swamp.'s about that's what happened okay well or someone or she paid someone to do it i don't i don't know if she physically did it but he died he was killed and he was dumped in the swamp and he'd never seen again he probably put some chicken wire on him and he's just at the bottom of a swamp somewhere all right let me ask you this. Do you, are you a sort of Joe, are you a Joe Exotic fan? Are you, do you think he's?

Okay, so he's obviously guilty of like everything and more, right? I think they're all, I think they're all terrible people, except for a couple. I think Carol's the worst of them all because she pretends that she's this wildlife rescue and she's absolutely not. They live, in my opinion, at least from what we saw, her animals lived in worse conditions than Joe's animals lived in. Smaller cages, didn't seem as much care. I appreciated that Jeff Lowe knew he's a dirtbag, but I kind of liked that he's like, yeah, you can tell he's like, I'm a terrible person. He knows he's a terrible person. But I kind of liked it.

He's like, yeah, I'm just – you can tell he's like, I'm a terrible person. He knows he's a terrible person. I thought some of the employees at Joe's Zoo were good people. They're just kind of in bad situations. But, yeah, Joe and the fake doctor who's a doctor of mythical things, who, by the way, you see the pictures up here yesterday of Britney Spears with that doctor. Yeah, with Bhagavan. And so they're all just terrible people.

And I felt bad for the animals the whole time, obviously. Thankfully, there wasn't that much cruelty we saw on video, obviously, with that. But yeah, they're all terrible people. They're all, I mean, they're keeping these tigers. There's more tigers in captivity than there are in the wild. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty awful. I'll leave you with this Jeff um Jeff Lowe and this may have to get edited out we'll we'll get confirmation from my wife but a few years ago right about nine years ago when my wife and I started dating she had a trip to Vegas planned with a girlfriend oh and she called me like the morning after she'd

been out had you know a great night late night out and she's like yeah I had this crazy night I was out with the blackjack table and this guy came over to us and you know I think he was like trying to hit on us or whatever but he was being polite and then he just like slid a couple chips over our way to play with and we're like oh okay thanks and like we took the money and you know we lost and then he slid 1500 over to us and we played blackjack like all night using his chips i was like what wait what's the end of that story like what are you talking about so she's like no that was it like he and you know i think he was definitely like interested but you know he was nice and we didn't you know we said good

night and blah blah blah i was like what the hell we're watching this this story was a story for forever whenever that other friend who i'll leave out of this would come by nothing apparently ever happened but always was this guy reference was this guy from blackjack table uh when we just started dating okay we're watching the tiger king and about six episodes in she pauses it and she goes holy shit jeff low is the guy from the blackjack table and i was like what she's like that's him i'm gonna text my friend wow who hasn't seen it yet and just say who is this person she took a screen grab sent it to the friend the friend was like oh that's the guy from the blackjack table so then she searched her texts he had texted

her like that night or something inviting her to mal Malibu, like this whole crazy world. And so Jeff Lowe has been trying this move of like just using money to get whatever he can for years now. And I'm sure there's dozens of people out there, men and women, who've had a weird encounter with him. Wow.

Involved it. So yeah, my wife believes that Jeff Lowe gave her $1,500 while maybe lightly hitting on her at a blackjack table. Lightly hitting on her. We saw that he's, he was looking for, for hot nannies while his wife is pregnant right next to him. I mean,

you said it. I didn't say it. We're not editing this out. Sorry. If you're, if you're listening to the 57th minute of this podcast, you deserve to hear tiger king breakdown yeah all right we got 57 minutes in during quarantine everybody we did it uh thank

you uh for joining us um rate review subscribe please that means a lot to me to get your feedback at jeff schwartz on twitter we'll be back on tuesday hopefully there's some more nfl news we go if not guys we have plenty of stuff discussed as usual got a bunch of draft stuff and top five season already normally that's saved for the summer game but it's already top five season and sports talk radio so we're going to let it happen

and alright guys take care have a great week stay safe talk to you guys next week I saw a tiger tiger somewhere Stay safe. Talk to you guys next week.