Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - College Football's Scattered Leadership

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

Power Five conferences are not in sync — even as Trevor Lawrence and dozens of players express a desire to play the 2020 season. Geoff explains why the conference leadership is moving slowly. Also, was Deion too old-school for shaming NFL players who opt-out? And we'll discuss Tom Brady's newfound playbook dilemma. #WeWanttoPlay: (2:05) Deion: (24:54) Tom Brady: (30:17) 'Move the Line' Betting Segment: (37:24) 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.

you're trying to learn a bunch of different things and you're trying to, you know, not only learn an offense, but learn your way to work or learn guys names. It's Tuesday, August 11th. College football has never been this disorganized. Deion Sanders thinks players are expendable and Tom Brady's basically a

rookie again. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you, Gabe. I am, uh, I'm tired andartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you. Gabe, I am tired. And not like physically tired. I'm mentally exhausted. I'm mentally exhausted of refreshing Twitter every three of whether or not college football should be played or not. I want to state for the

record, Gabe, I am not a medical professional. I do not know if college football should be played. I don't pretend to be a medical professional on social media or on this show. I don't know what they should do, okay? I don't know what they should do. Okay. I don't, I don't really know. I understand both sides. And we'll talk about that a little bit, but man, I just, and I love college football. Obviously it's, it's, you know, we have this podcast, but my main source of income is a PAC 12 radio show,

which would be tough to do. Who's no PAC to a football. So our main positive we'll go over everyone. What is happening right now in the landscape of college football? Why we're at where we are in college football, hint leadership, and where I think this could end up just to, just to be frank too.

We record the night before, right? We're not recording at 5. A.M. And putting this out at 6. A.M. Eastern. So things might change, Gabe.

I guess. I don't know. We'll see. But, you know, the Big Ten is meeting right now. The Pac-12 is meeting tomorrow. The ACC is meeting tomorrow. The Big Ten is – Big 12 is maybe attaching to one conference or the other. I don't know, Gabe.

I have no idea. I don't know. Just start the first topic. Jeff, you sound a little frustrated, my friend, and I don't blame you. It's been a hard weekend. Normally, my job is to sort of take the takes and sum them up and spit them back to you, and then you rip them to shreds and you make us a little smarter. That's the whole point of this show, right? Yeah. There's too many takes this weekend. I wrote and rewrote all the takes. People like Danny Cannell were in our our crosshairs not anymore danny you're cool man you're not our problem right now you're spared listen like you said it's complicated every conference is meeting or will soon meet we don't

know where things are it feels like college football is basically in a state of like a shiva or awake depending on your culture and your religion it's just like dead or soon to be dying if you if you read the Internet. Here's what I want to know, Jeff. Trevor Lawrence came out, probably a top player in college football, used the hashtag hashtag. We want to play to lead a group of players who are basically saying other guys said they wanted to opt out. We're the ones who are saying we want to opt in. Our voice should be heard as well. And a lot of people agreed with that. So I want to start there. I don't have like the take to be argumentative. I just have my thought that the players and the leaders are not on the same page right now. And that's problematic. And before you go, I'll just open one of these

because this is the only way I'm going to get through your answer. So it is very clear that there is a lack of leadership in college football, an extreme lack of leadership from the NCAA, from, in my opinion, the conference commissioners who just don't seem to be doing things together. There's no coordination from the presidents. And Trevor Lawrence spoke about that. We've seen throughout players are saying, we want to play and here's what we need to do to play. And they're talking about COVID protocols. And then on the other hand, we hear from athletic directors and we hear from

other people that these are in place. Like we hear individual schools are doing a good job. The players like Alabama doing a great job. Clemson, we're doing a good job. The players like Alabama doing a great job. Clemson, we're doing a great job. Ohio State, we're doing a great job. Oregon, we're doing a great job. Well, then why is not everyone doing a great job of this? Like where's the coordination between all conferences? It's 65 power five teams.

They should be in this together. I understand the MAAC is canceled. The Mountain West is canceled. I get it. But they're not part of this whole playoff structure, right? The Power Fives are governed by the College of World Playoff Committee. Yes, they're governed by the NCAA, but sort of not really. Like they're their own little power conference together. They should be working together to figure this out. There's been extreme lack of leadership. And I appreciate Trevor Lawrence speaking out. I appreciate all the players speaking out.

And we'll get to some things he said, because I just think that what he said, I'll get to right now. Why not? You know, he said something in there that goes to kind of maybe the leadership as a whole that's going on in college football and our country. He said in his thread that, you know, players basically are doing what they have to do to stay healthy because there's football. So they're wearing their mask, they're socially distancing, they're taking precautions, they're not going out. But if they were to leave the

facility and football was over, they wouldn't do any of that. And that's where we are in our country right now. That's where it's a terrible indictment that we only do something that benefits us. If we had done what we're supposed to do, which was social distance, wear a mask and care for other people, we'd have college football. But like, it's utterly ridiculous that in, and I like to, again, I'm glad he's speaking out. I'm glad the players are speaking out. It's a little too late in my opinion. Not that they had to speak out earlier, but in that three-tweet thread he had, that's the problem right there, right? A lack of leadership, a lack of accountability, a lack of we're in this together.

The NCAA is – this whole process, in my opinion, is about one thing. It all ties back to one thing. It's amateurism, all right? Amateurism. back to one thing. It's amateurism, all right? Amateurism. The NCAA, the presidents, the athletic directors, they want to keep a sense of amateurism going. And amateurism essentially is that these are student athletes and they're not going to get paid and they're amateurs, which is horseshit, right? We know that. It's ridiculous. People are like, well, they'll only spend four hours a day in the facility. Okay, sure. Whatever you want to believe, they spend four hours a day

doing football stuff. And so every decision made, whether to cancel a season, play a season, it's all around this idea, right? It's not so much the idea that players want to unionize or players want to form a, really they can't, a trade association or players want this and that. Our players want to form a, really, they can't, a trade association. Our players want this and that. It's all about keeping amateurism alive. And if you say, and this is happening out west more than anywhere else, it's also happening in Clemson who's not having students for a month.

Okay, students, it's too unsafe for you to come to campus. You cannot be on campus. But football players, guess what? You're allowed to be on campus. That makes them pros. That's what they're trying to avoid. They're trying to avoid the liability of that situation. They're trying to avoid the liability, obviously, of someone suing them, which is, it's very, it's very minor. I mean, look, they're really not going to win any money, but the idea of suing them. And lastly, and this is less new amateurism, but I think a big thing that's come out today, and we've seen this, is that the idea that there are heart complications from COVID.

And you can have the same heart complications from the flu, from H1N1, from other viruses, but it appears that it's worse in COVID and happens more often than it does in the other viruses. And there's still research coming out of that. And there have been power five players who have had heart problems since they got COVID. The NFL announced, by the way, today, they're going to include cardiac testing and screening after a player tests positive for COVID. So there's so much to break down here. Leadership, lack of doing what we're supposed to do. I mean, look the the mississippi

governor said this week and i hate getting into like the politics of this but it's kind of all intertwined here especially since um you know the stick to sports crowd was begging for politicians to talk about college football coming back right i mean it's a complete hypocritical thing right the guys we don't actually want people in sports to stick to sports. We just don't want them to say what we disagree with. Because as soon as they agree with what the political thing is, they're all for it, right? I mean, people that literally have said, athletes stick to sports are out on Twitter begging politicians to talk about cultural being played like that's so hypocritical um so you know it's i it there's a lot of to again i i see kind of both ways i see what you know why the money's

so grand why players want to play i see why the liability is a concern i see why you're worried about your athletes getting sick i see why you, if you're a college president, you asked, hey, is the school next to me doing the same protocols as we are? Probably not because there's no leadership. It gets back to these themes of no leadership, no accountability and amateurism. And that's where we are right now. Well, so I want to, I want to pick apart some of what you just said. Um, we're going to ignore the hypocrisy of a certain part of the fan base. Um, and some of our colleagues who have been notoriously crazy at talking about this topic, I'm just going to push aside their thoughts for now. Here's what I want to know about. We saw coach Harbaugh in Michigan, um, say, Hey, we've done

a great job, you know, with 350 something tests, no positives. We have Coach Harbaugh in Michigan say, hey, we've done a great job. You know, with 350 something tests, no positives. We have it under control. Our guys are following the rules. We're doing great. Congratulations, coach. I believe you. The concern everyone has is that you play with a bunch of other teams and if any of them don't do as good a job as you do, as in there is no overall plan, you're just as screwed as they are. And then your players are just as at risk for these awful things we're hearing about. So I think the fact that he and then players like Trevor Lawrence,

who again, good on him for speaking out, but kind of missing the point. Like guys, just because you want to play, just because you feel safe does not mean that you are or everyone around you is. And that is the whole country's problem right now. So why aren't people

getting that? How are we still here in August, not getting that in football? We don't have football because we didn't get it in March. Well, we don't have college football because of that. Because look, the NFL, and this is the amateurism issue again. The NFL is 32 professionals, okay? They can sign, they have a CBA, they have a union, they've agreed, they've opted out. Like players are like, okay, I'm out. You know, but the players that are opting out still get an advance on next year's salary. You know, if you're a high-risk player in college football, you get the guarantee to have your scholarship this year. There's no guarantee it's going to be there next year, which is part of what the players kind of want in

writing. And again, this is where I go back to like, there's a disconnect because the NCAA has said, you keep your scholarship and no COVID liability waivers. But in the demands, they say no COVID liability waivers and keep our scholarships. Like it feels like they've already done that. Like, why is there no, is there no, is there no connection here? And, you know, that again, I go back to to that being gabe um a huge just a problem i mean look at i know i'm kind of rambling from top to top of topic here but it's just so there's so much like look at the at the big 10 the big 10 decides they seem like they're on the brink of cancer the the the season um first by the way, the first Power Five. So the Big Ten was the first conference

to break away from the other conferences and say, we're going conference-only schedule. Out of the blue, by the way, I had interviewed Larry Scott, the Pac-12 commissioner, a couple of days beforehand. He said, we talk every day as commissioners. And then all of a sudden,

the Big Ten commissioner said, oh, we're going to go conference-only schedule by ourselves. Then the SEC and the Pac-12 schedule, they started their season for September 26th. So they have plenty of time to ramp up. And look, out west, you're in California. Numbers are better in California. Numbers are better in Arizona.

They're getting better. I mean, this is a little better. I mean, we have to take some wins when we can get them. And they're trending in the right direction for the West Coast to play football, which is why you went conference only. And the Big Ten then, Gabe, put out a schedule last week and said, we're starting Labor Day weekend. What? Why are you starting Labor Day weekend? Look around. Even the ACC put out a schedule, I think September 12th or 13th.

Why are you starting Labor Day weekend when the Pac-12, which is kind of like your sister conference, your brother conference, they do everything in tandem, right? The Rose Bowl. They play at the Rose Bowl every year. When they put out September 26th, where's the leadership in the conference to look and see what everyone else is doing? You put out a schedule last week. I cannot imagine, Gabe. You're in management, right? I mean, you guys talk about things,

contingency plans, a bunch of, all the time before things are done. So to me, the presidents have already talking about canceling the season when they put out a schedule. Why put out a schedule if you're gonna cancel the season? Like, I don't understand what changed to make them want to go ahead and try to cancel the season and why the other conferences have to follow along with them. Either the Big Ten wants in or out. Like, you can't be like, well, we're in only if another conference is in with us. Like, what sense does that make?

Yeah. I mean, I think one of the Big Ten coaches said, you know, nobody wants to be the first conference to pull out and nobody wants to be the last conference to pull out, which means nobody really wants to be responsible for any of the decisions. They don't want to upset anyone. And that's the problem we're in. So I want to bring up – Yes, that's our country. That's our whole country. So I want to bring up another team within the Big Ten and then I want to get to another issue you raised. So I read earlier that Coach Day at Ohio State floated the idea on an ESPN show, I believe, that, well, you know, if we can't do it in the Big Ten, maybe we'll play in another conference. Maybe we'll just go play somewhere else. And people were speculating that means the SEC. Like, wouldn't that be cool?

Look, again, this is the issue. It isn't just, okay, well, but I feel okay, so I'm going to do it my way, and everyone else, good luck to you. If the Big Ten can't play, Ohio State can't just go play in the SEC because they're willing to take the risk. How does that work? Look, I would love to see Oregon and USC just go. Oregon's a much better spot than USC would be to just go to our conference for a season. But your point's right.

Is that like, again, if the presidents deem as a whole, it's too unsafe to play. And again, I want to make this point for like the thousandth time. If you were to list what the criteria are for like why they would cancel the season, player health is like seventh okay they keep saying that it's like amateurism one through five one through four i should say then maybe like the players might form a union and we might have to pay them and then like okay liability and then like health and safety right it's not it's not that important to them you know they keep saying that but we know it's not because they would put together covid protocols that we everyone would follow um so yeah you're right like

you can't just say ohio state you know you're out but then hey you go play in the sec i and so look i i do think that there's going to be a lot of pushback from the athletic directors and presidents here um there's gonna be a lot of pushback from obviously the coaches and players. And isn't it interesting, Gabe, that like, you know, there's a lot of people that like, they're like, we should listen to the players. We should listen to them. Okay. So then you're okay with them forming a union? Because that's what Trevor Lawrence said in that thing too. That's important. That's a big part of his letter. It was like the fourth bullet point. We want to talk about forming a union, which if you go to at Ruling Sports, Alicia did a great job.

She's a contract attorney breaking down a labor attorney, breaking down the ins and outs of that. They can't actually form a union, but they can form more of a trade association. Just legally speaking, you can't form a union like a state is a state employee for a lot of the state schools. But the idea like, so people, of course, are going to be like well i want them to play but not have these things which you've seen like you can't you kind of be in or out you can't kind of like and again i've been i've been against the players getting paid per se but if they're all going to get paid and they're all going to form a union, be my guest and do it.

And I think that we're heading to a point, Gabe, where college football will never be the same again. You know, people are arguing that once Trevor Lawrence leaves and Panay Sewell and all the older guys, that the younger group won't take this over. But I'll tell you what, man. If they don't play a season, what else is there to do? The younger guys are going to take this mantle over. What else is there to do? The younger guys are going to take this mantle over, and there's going to be complete overhaul of the entire system, which might include the Power Fives giving the bird to the NCAA just moving and forming their own little thing.

Because, like, they've been failed. They've been completely failed. They're going to lose billions of dollars because of this failure. And that might be a reason why they just form their own thing. There's ramifications past this season for so many years to come. The pro sports don't have that problem, right? The pro sports will just pick up next year because there's less teams, less players, more controllable environment. College football is going to forever change.

Yeah, well, and there may be some good changes in it. going to forever change. Yeah, well, and there may be some good changes in it. And I mean, I've seen a lot of people say maybe they're being snarky or sarcastic that now they're not really sure what the NCAA does. And, you know, I guess I kind of am with the people who've asked that question. Like they're sort of being wise asses, but like it isn't clear. And to your point, if the power five school just decided we're a new thing and we're going to set up a whole new system with our athletes, perhaps that that could be a better outcome. Let me let me go back to the story that felt like it was going to be the big thing this weekend, at least on Twitter, that now it's almost forgotten. But I do think there's some interesting nuggets in this that will inform the way the coverage works all week. Danny Cannell, who's, you know, obviously he's a great college football player,

then became a member of the media, works at ESPN and other places. The guy I know and like. But he got a lot of pushback for a tweet he put out and then a series of tweets after. So I'm going to read you the quote. I know you replied to it and then I want to get your thoughts on this.

He said, no, a lot of college football writers have been accused of rooting against the season. I don't think that's necessarily the case, but some absolutely want to be able to say, I told you so, because they've been peddling only the absolute worst headlines. Sadly, might cost the season. And he sort of went on to imply that media were making the decision makers in college football want to cancel the season, that media had this influence over the decision makers and that football want to cancel the season. That media had this influence over the decision makers and they would bail on the season because a bunch of naysayers and doomsdayers in the media were telling them they should.

What's your reaction to all of that? Is what presented with the story, does the media choose a more negative angle or more positive angle at times? I think they would choose a more negative angle, right? Usually, yeah. The reason why they do that is because that's what sells, okay? That's what sells. If you only want to hear positive news,

you wouldn't click on that link that talked about the negative thing that's happening. You wouldn't react to the negative thing that's happening. Is anyone rooting against football? No. But are there people that cover the sport that write negative articles? 100%. So I tweeted out basically the idea that like, oh, the Big Ten presidents are meeting and they're like, oh, what did Jeff Schwartz tweet today?

Oh, he doesn't want football. We're out of football. Then the response was, well, the media basically stirs up fear. And the fear is the reason why. Guys, yes, presidents are fearful of getting sued for liability. That's not a media thing. That's a real thing that happens. You get sued for liability. They're worried about one of their players, heaven forbid,

dying from COVID because they made them go back to work. Very small chance. I'm not fear-porting this. I'm just giving a hypothetical what if. Very small chance it happens. My new chance it happens. But if it does, they're going to lose all their money. And they're going to be looked at the same.

And what I love about these arguments too is the idea that like every college president is just like some liberal hack who watches CNN all day. Like none of them could ever watch Fox News or none of them could ever be conservative. That all decisions made are just solely made by liberal college presidents, which again is a bunch of BS, right? It's just not the case. And so instead of blaming the actual problems in our country with COVID, the media is an easy target. It's plain and simple. I also think there are people that are projecting their sorrow to other people on Twitter.

Because look, a lot of the people that are most vocal about cultural being played and have come up with reasons for it to be played, like staunch reasons, they need it to play for their jobs. Okay? So do I. I do. And I'm very fortunate, Gabe. I've made a lot of money.

I don't – I'll be fine. I'm not complaining about it. I'll be fine. I don't want to lose my job, but I'll still be fine. But I think a lot of it is fear from them that they will lose their jobs and their lives will be forever changed without college football. And I wish we were in this together. And blaming the media for this is just – it's easy, but it's lazy.

It's not what's happening. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's interesting because my read was not the same as most people I agree with on Twitter. And everyone sort of jumped at Danny and a few other guys were kind of agreeing with him. And there was a lot of people pouncing on them. I think it's a little bit disingenuous to suggest that the media doesn't have a huge amount of influence in college football. A lot of how we view college football is based on the way goofballs at ESPN and Sports Illustrated and Fox think about the sport, right? From the rankings and preseason to the Heisman,

to who makes the playoff. The media has a huge, huge hand in that. So I think it's a little bit narrow to say that they wouldn't have anything to do with college presidents and decision makers' fear of bad press. They have an influence. Sure, but fear of bad press in this situation, I don't think it's valid because most people want them to play. You might have three sports writers who are like, oh, I don't want them to play. The rest of us want them to play. Yeah, obviously. Their't want them to play. The rest of us want them to play. Yeah, obviously. Their communities want them to play.

Like, I think if you polled a bunch of people, they'd be like, yeah, we want you to play. So the fear of the media backlash is not predominant here. Yeah. It's the fear of getting sued and the fear of amateurism. Again, amateurism ending because you have the players going back to campus when no one else is. A quick little side here because this is important. The Big Tents meeting tonight,

like we talked about, the Pac-12 tomorrow. The best option, in my opinion, is to delay like two weeks and kind of figure things out. Two weeks, you get together and you figure it out.'s a quote from um i think university of utah doctor because it's an espn 700 station that's in utah um he said the the pac-12 medical advisors will recommend a stop

contact and competitive athletes at this time until criteria in place to move forward, including testing protocol frequency, will basically depend on the rate of community spread. So he said also that if we can test on a regular basis, I think we can play college football. Right now, we're not ready for that. So that feels like the most positive thing I've heard so far, which is that we can do it. We just have to work together

to get this done. We have to spend some money and find some testing and like put some actual work into making this happen together. Jerry also added, he is the Utah Jazz Team doctor, Dave Patron. So thank you, Dave, for speaking out about this so that again come together and make this happen they can do it if they want to do it yeah well let's leave on i guess the most optimistic note sort of that we covered in that college football segment and let me we'll pick up some time here because this is related but kind of a different angle on all of it so deon sanders who may be the best football player of all time um he's weighing in on people opting in and opting out he had a bizarre tweet i almost wondered if he was hacked uh these are deon's words he said all players opting out in all sports please believe the game will go on without you this is

a business and don't you ever forget that there's no one that's bigger than the game itself. Only the ref, umps, and officials are that important that you can't play without them. Not you. Hashtag truth. So it seemed like a very strange thing coming from primetime. A guy who absolutely never believed for one second that he was in any way replaceable. He's probably right, by the way. Um, but, but I guess I want to know this. Are we seeing something among like an older generation of sort of football guys that like this isn't black or white or red state, blue state where there's this big divide. There are just people right now, including, I guess, Deion Sanders, who feel like you're just supposed to go out there and play and you're all replaceable. It's just a machine and you're a part of it. Do you believe that that's the way a lot of guys you sort of came up with and maybe the generation above you really look at this right now or is dion on an island um you know i i think that the dion things is because dion does tweet like this sometimes where it's like where it's like uh dion what do you what are you doing man um i think that players, older players, never had options for anything. They didn't have options for days off during training camp. They didn't have options for less practices. They didn't have as much of a say. They didn't have a say in free agency. I mean, Dion came right when free agency just started.

But they didn't have a say in anything. They didn't get paid as much money as NFL players do. They view the NFL players now. And even I do this. I'm now a guy who's like, wait, they get another off day in training camp? They don't have to hit at all? Like, what is this? And I just retired relatively recently, four or five years ago.

So older players, I think, resent that players now have options and the opt-out is part of the option. And yes, you're replaceable, but the refs were replaceable too. They used replacement refs for four weeks. Yeah, that part of it was insane. The NFL, the NFL Refs Association agreed to pay their refs if they opt out

$30,000 and let them keep their job. Like not as an advance for next year, just $30,000 to keep their refs if they opt out. $30,000 and let them keep their job. Like not as an advance for next year, just $30,000 to keep their day job. All the refs, by the way, not all of them, I'm just saying that. Most of them have day jobs on the side. So it just comes off as like old guy wasn't allowed to have options as a player,

even though he did play two sports at the same time. I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like, I feel like Dion of all people, we've got all kinds of concessions made for him. Like, you know,

I feel like he negotiated the hell out of everything he ever did and got, and, and was irreplaceable. Like who was a bigger star than Dion Sanders? Like you couldn't have had certain teams without him. So I just, I didn't understand where that was coming from. And I think it has to do with what you're getting.

Yeah. And I also think, Gabe, that we don't give players enough credit with their mindset and their thinking here. The players know dang well that if they sit out, they might never, you know, they might lose their spot or they might not play again. that if they sit out, they might lose their spot or they might not play again. I mean, we talked about this on the college side, maybe on this specific podcast, but other ones were like, the players are basically demanding, the Pac-12 players in the demand letter,

that we keep our spot. Well, it doesn't work that way, right? If you sit out, I mean, you're a fan of USC. JT Daniels gets hurt, Keaton Slovis comes in, plays well, and that's his job now. That's the way it works. If you sit out for the year in college football, you stand in the NFL,

you could be replaced. And the players know this. The NFL players do. I don't know if the college players understand this yet. The NFL players that opt out know this is the case. And a lot of them are older players and it feels like

some of them are just, this is like their way to retire. It's like kind of their easy way to out. Maybe they were going to get released and they can you know keep some money um interesting to point out too over half the players that opted out were big guys often defense alignment and tight ends um which we talked about you know body mass index and the breathing on each other things like that so i just think it comes down to in the end the idea that that dion um you know just didn't get those options and players understand what they're doing they understand

this might be and they understand that the teams as much as they say game oh we you know okay yeah yeah sure you you have our support i mean i i'm skeptical that that they have their support in sitting out especially when the coaches are having to play and play through this and practice this. Other players are doing this too. Yeah, but that's where I thought it was odd that a guy like Dion, who clearly is now a media member and an influencer over the whole sort of football industry, would go with a take that was so sort of pro owner, I guess you'd say. It doesn't help any players for him to say what he said. And so it just, it struck me as kind of odd. And I wondered if the mindset was just more of an old school versus new school thing, less than like his politics or where

he's from or anything like that. Um, all right. Can I move it along to sort of a football topic? This one I'm excited to talk about with you. I'm sure you are. You have to find a way to talk about this guy once in an episode. We're trying to get people to listen. You've got to talk about the most famous man in history. So, Tompa Brady is apparently starting to see how difficult football is when you don't have an entire

franchise built around you for two decades, when you don't have the greatest coach of all time leading both sides of the ball for you, when you don't have a staff of of all time leading both sides of the ball for you, when you don't have a staff of people cheating on your behalf and then taking the fall for you when they get caught, when you can't throw a hissy fit and get new players brought in whenever you feel like it, you don't have the weapons.

He's apparently realizing that actually football at 43 is kind of hard. So here's Tom Brady talking about having to learn a playbook in Tampa. I think every football season is a big challenge in one way or another. And it's been different having the opportunity, you know, over this time to, you know, move and then to, you know, for example, study my playbook. I mean, I really haven't had to do that in 19 years. So, you know, you forget, man, that's really really tough like all the different terminologies and you know you're going back a very long time in my career to um you know to really have to put the mental energy in okay so the terminologies are giving tom some trouble uh he also admits it's

hard to you know be a human who interacts with other human beings saying quote you're trying to not only learn an offense but learn your way to work or learn guys names tom's struggling to learn people's names in tampa that's his problem now this ain't gonna work dude you keep you can every week tell me it will it won't tom brady's gonna suck in tampa i am um a habitual name forgetter thankfully my wife remembers all the names every time we meet somebody. Like I'll meet someone literally to go golfing and I'll like shake their hand and I will not remember their name and hope someone else says it at some point in the round.

So I can say like, stop saying, hey, buddy. So what you got to do, sorry, let me give you a little tip on this. You brought up the wife. Here's what I do. My wife already knows this trick, but I will if i see like let's say i couldn't remember your name and i saw you after a while i'll be like oh hey

have you met my wife before and then she'll be like hi i'm georgina and reach out to extend her hand and then i get to listen to you say i'm jeff nice to meet you and then i'm like yeah anyway so jeff and i have been working together for years that That's the way to do it. Well, I mean, I've been working together for years. You know my name. That's upsetting. I relearn it every week, Monday, recording. But anyway, you were going to defend Tom Brady, the man who must be defended. The signs are showing that they're going to have a slow start to the season.

They're going to have a slow start to the season because of this, Tom Brady learning the playbook. But also just because of COVID, right? Like, it's unusual start to the season. They have so much to start to the season because of this, Tom Brady learning the playbook. But also just because of COVID, right? Like it's unusual start to the season. You know, they don't put on pads for another six

or seven days. I mean, the Chiefs are put on pads, Chiefs and Texans put on pads this week. But otherwise, they're not putting on pads. And their first game

is in the Dome in New Orleans. Like they have a tough schedule to start out. There's going to be growing pains. And out um there's gonna be growing pains and i and i had believed there would be growing pains for a while i just didn't know how severe they're gonna be and i don't want to overreact off of a couple comments but yeah it does tom has never

talked like this before like ever right like he's never shows this side of let's say vulnerability or just kind of the idea that like hey man it might be tougher than i thought it would be so you know they play at new orleans the panthers the broncos who everyone sees thinks they're sneaky good i don't know it's in denver the broncos might have the only home field advantage by the way which is the altitude in the entire nfl this season because there's no noise. Right, right. And they play the Los Angeles Chargers who, I don't know, maybe that's Herbert's first start. Let's hope it is.

But I think it's going to be a tough go to kind of get the train moving a little bit. Hopefully we see some footage from practice coming up very soon. But I'm still – I'm less on the idea of them being like a Super Bowl team than I was about three months ago. OK, then I'm chipping away at you. See, because here's the thing. He keeps he's talking in these quotes he gave to an ESPN reporter about the terminology is hard for him.

And what I really am, I think it's dawning on him that like he's spent truly like 10 years trying to make his body perfect. Right. Like he's he's still in good shape at 43 years old and people marvel over that and so to his credit but it's because he had to put no time into anything else like literally he hasn't had to like even think about a playbook since maybe his third super bowl you know what i mean so i think it is occurring to him in a strange way though and i think most of us knew like yeah man this game isn't easy when your offensive coordinator and your coach turn over every few years when you know your team decides to rebuild around you uh over and over again he's never had to deal with it so i i'm

going under on any kind of win total for them by a lot um i i think it's at nine and a half ten i think we're hitting by the way we're hitting the uh afc and nfc north this week on our thursday episode with matt um so we'll hit that uh we'll hit the the buck soon i under still feels it's one of those important gambling tip by the way you don't have to bet on everything like you don't have to bet on um on every game i had a call with this company that said hey you know we want to track your picks and i said yeah but like can we like can we just track like entertainment picks and then like actual picks i make which was a problem in another company i was at where they just track everything i'm like i'm not actually betting that game you asked me to give you a play. I gave it to you. Like, can we just, can we track what I actually bet?

So like, you know, I'm giving these picks out of what I would do. And I say through the podcast, like, this is what I'm actually doing. Like, for example, Matt gave a great prop bet on Saquon Barkley under. And I was like, done, under yards. I mean, like, so I, but Tampa, I feel like I'm going to lay away from though. But I'm still going to root for Tom Brady really hard this year just because he pisses you off. Did you hear my Jets take, by the way, the other day? What is it?

I said Jets are going over just to piss you off. Oh, get out of here. I'm telling you, man. Tom Brady and Sam Darnold have every media member's family hidden in a closet somewhere holding you all hostage. It's insane the things that people say about those two guys. I'm done trying to figure it out. Can I read you one quote from Julian Edelman who I never really thought I liked but I'm starting to have newfound respect for? Hebrew.

Julian Edelman on his former teammate and probably current best friend. I love him to death, but the train keeps moving. Julian Edelman's onto the cam train. He's done with Tom Brady. I love it. That quote sounds like Bill Belichick just inserted himself into the vocal cords of Julian Edelman, and that came out. That's a very Belichickian quote from Julian Edelman.

No question. Moving on, so let's move the line. Our quick little betting segment at the end of this show. Like you said, you do a lot more betting later in the week with Matt, so I'll check that out. These are not real bets. Those probably will be. So I want to know, a number of times we see Bill Belichick,

who you just mentioned, in a Cam Newton fedora this season, over under.5. Cam looking sharp the other day. Well, Gabe, do you think the Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl? It terrifies me to say so. I would definitely not bet against them. Well, if they win the Super Bowl, he'll do this. Three defense with a decent offense that probably just got better.

If they win the Super Bowl, he does this. So I'm going to go under because I don't think they win the super bowl he does this so i'm gonna go under because i don't think they win the super bowl so i was under i think they win the super bowl campbell like put it on him at the press conference like he'll find a way to get that on his mug at some point i almost said on his i almost said on his keppy throw out a yiddish word there for uh yeah i said shiva earlier you did it i just i mean, Keppy is like I said to my kids, but, you know, put on his head at some point this year. All right. Well, I don't think even Cam Newton can make Bill Belichick human or likable. So I'm going to take the under.

All right. I want to know NFL fights this season over under the total from last season. Don't ask me to tell you how many there were. this season over under the total from last season. Don't ask me to tell you how many there were. The reason I bring this up, apparently the NHL is having more fights and people think it's like COVID related that everyone's just frustrated, fired up and,

and games have a lot more on the line. Are we going to see more fights in the NFL this year? We saw a fight in the first three minutes of the first hockey game that was back. There was a goal in the first minute and there's a fight right away oh i think this is i will say over this is um a lot of pent-up aggression i'm not you know the hockey players are in a hotel they can't see their wives or girlfriends um they're all together they're probably eating together talking together it's a lot of of testosterone, man, ready to be released.

And it comes with fighting. We see in training camp, Gabe, a lot of times fights happen after two, three weeks of just intense being togetherness. And so I think that we're going to see a lot of fights in the NFL season. Okay. Well, I'm not going to disagree with that. And I do think everyone, I mean, I'm getting pissed off at people. Like I walk by people, I'll just grumble about that, you know, their lack of a mask or whatever. I think this is happening a lot.

People are losing patience with everything. So why would football players be any different? um i yeah i mean can you imagine a fight like a fight of like them um of them like um like a fight over a mask in a facility like like just guys brawling about a mask it'd be i don't happen but i don't see that but i'm just saying the overall tension of, like you said, there's not a lot of release right now and it's all going to come out on the field. Let's let's move along here. I want to know. And by the way, when I say this, I'm going to reveal how stupid I sound saying it. But here goes anyway. Times Jeff thought a teammate was, quote, running from that grind during his career over under 2.5. If you'd like me to explain what the hell that means,

I will. That's Dame Willard, who was talking shit to Paul George on social media. There's a big Clippers, Portland Trailblazers rivalry right now. Dame Willard lost. He missed two foul shots to lose a game. Pat Beverly and Paulorge are mocking him they

went out on social media as well then dame came back and scored like 50 points um uh dame's playing well right now um yeah there were there were plenty of players and he's talking about paul george of course getting up and going to los angeles um i uh really also oklahoma city right he went to from indiana oklahoma city um i uh i would say over i mean there's a lot of players that and i'll just say this there's a lot of players that are good at football but don't love the grind of football and it pisses me off because i love the grind i wasn't very good at times and i was very hurt but there are guys that don't like the great there were there was a guy who i played with he only played four years so this is a bad example for like a guy that kind

of played more than me but four years on game day they you walk into the locker room they put you tell me which team this was just so i can try while you talk on the giants yes um they they put when you show up to the stadium they put you, you know, your lockers set up for you. And your pads are in your locker with your jersey on them. The jerseys get taped on or they get Velcroed on so they don't come off. So, like, they're on your pads already. Yeah. And, you know, typically the seven guys that are, seven offensive linemen that are dressing will, you know, have their jerseys on the thing.

Every now and then, you walk in the locker room, one of the guys you thought was going to dress for the game doesn't have their jersey on their pads. You're like, oh, what happened? Maybe they're sick. Maybe they got hurt. Maybe they just made a change. So they set up, and I wasn't here for this,

but a player, before I got there, walked in one day, saw his jersey on his pads, which you did not expect, and almost had like a mental breakdown because he had to play the game. Which I think was a joke. They just did it as a joke. He wasn't actually dressing.

So that is, that is, you know, the, yes, over. Way over. All right. I'm just going to throw a name out there. That sounds to me, I'm just looking at your 2015 Giants roster. I'm going to go ahead and say you're talking about Weston Richburg. That was Richburg who did that. No.

Weston's the exact opposite. He would play, and he did play through like a broken hand, and he's got a lot of truth. I was being an asshole. I don't know anything about Weston. Weston, I love Weston. I'll tell you one thing about Weston. It's not like a secret. He raises cattle in West Texas.

And he raises them for show. I did not know this. He taught me this. He raises them for show. So he puts them in a refrigerator, a refrigerator truck, and they get furry. And then he shows them off at shows like cows they get fur like this literal fur on the cow like thick cow fur and he shows them off at at shows and he wins prizes that's allowed yeah it's a much different upbringing than you had yeah huh i was doing i've asked weston so many questions about this before i'm

so fascinated by this i'm glad i just tried to throw asked weston so many questions about this before i'm so fascinated by this i'm glad i just tried to throw weston under the bus i just learned something i never would have known i just picked the funniest looking name on your team that year he's a hard i guess it was it was definitely marshall newhouse that's not marshall either geez you you basically picked the two guys i talked to the most off that team marshall and weston was the guy to your right and your left so that is no weston no weston would he's a tough ass you know he cuts out refs i love weston uh marshall's awesome too uh no not marshall and weston all right all right well the mystery will continue a couple last ones and then we'll wrap it up here uh speaking of teammates these

are your current teammates i would like to know we all saw an article and shared it on our little show text thread, me, Zuri, Matt, and yourself. Apparently what you're supposed to do, I think PFT shared this actually. Apparently what you're supposed to do if you're approached by a bear when you're out hiking is you're supposed to shove down one of your hiking mates and then run, and then the bear will attack the person who you knocked over. So I want to know how many of us do you pancake in order to escape over under 2.5? There are only three of us. Are we all dead?

How does this work? I mean, you guys are all be dead, but the article actually said the opposite. It said, do not throw your friend down in front of the bear. Oh, really?

Did I misread that? You did. It said the exact opposite. It said, do not throw your friend in front of the the bear. Oh, really? Did I misread that? You did. It said the exact opposite. It said, do not throw your friend in front of the bear. I actually read the article on my show yesterday. So, wait. Hold on. What are we supposed to do then?

So, you're supposed to just basically like stand tall and make noises like you're a human. And then like the bear knows you're a human. Or you back away like slowly and sideways so the bear can see you the whole time. Or you can see the bear the whole time. It said, do not whatsoever run from the bear. So the running away. So wait a minute. Hold on.

I'm calling BS on this. I'm saying you have the opportunity where me, you, Matt and Zuri are hiking. Okay. We're up in the Santa Monica mountains somewhere. And a bear lumbers down the trail towards us. And now you have the opportunity to either stand between all of us and a bear and stand up and make yourself very big and scare the bear away or pancake Zuri and sprint down the mountain. And you're saying you do a, well, um, I would follow the guidelines of the medical professionals that say,

the bear professionals that say, you don't do this. Zuri is typing in there. He says, standing bear is usually curious, not threatening. Moving sideways is also non-threatening to bears. Do not run. But if the bear follows, stomp and hold your ground. Like dogs, they will chase fleeing animals. I will say that out of the three of you guys matt's the first one to die yeah okay i was gonna say it

sounds like zuri knows a lot about how to escape bears no he's just he's just he's just putting the article that's the quotes in the article um i read this whole thing yesterday on my radio show um matt would be dead first i feel like i feel like he's the least athletic out of all of us i don't know. I mean, he used to be a good athlete, but then he messed his knee up, and then he tore his Achilles. Who knows? I think I could outrun Matt.

Matt, oh, man. I didn't realize he tore his Achilles. Jeez. That's a terrible injury. Bad injuries to his legs. So I feel like I got him beat. Like they say, you just got to be faster than your slowest friend. So you're saying Matt's a dunzo.

Matt's dead, yeah. And then if the bear just gets mad he's probably fine with the rest of us like he just we could we can get out of there all right we're not getting smarter anymore but i i meant to ask you about this have you uh have you seen the show awake on netflix uh no what's the wake okay i'll explain in a second i want to know over under hours you could stay awake in a row, 23.5. I almost did that in the flying back from Israel. I slept like two hours in like 20 and 27 hours, 27 hour trip.

Could you stay up for a full day if you needed to? Probably, yeah. Okay. stay up for a full day if you needed to probably yeah okay and if you did would you be able to do basic things like count and problem solve could you like would your brain work the whole the whole 23 and a half hours 24 hours probably not but i would hope so well the premise of this show on netflix which my wife's watching is that they basically keep you up awake and then make you do these mentally challenging tasks and then make you sort of second guess your own process in in doing it so since i brought up flora's lava in the past and you thought you would be the best

at that i just wanted to know if you'd be the best at awake as well my kids love flora's lava by the way they like it way more than i do great taste okay floors are you in in a way you have to eat and drink like caffeine and red bulls and espressos or just this is like a fasting thing too oh it's a good question i'm not i'm not a hundred percent sure what it is or isn't allowed i imagine you cannot have caffeine otherwise fat because fasting i'd be bad if it was fasting i would yeah i couldn't do any of that. But if it was eating and drinking and stuff, yeah, sure. How's your drink, by the way? Is it hidden right? It's done the job.

We should wrap up here because now I feel like, what the hell are we talking about? Bottom line, college football, I've asked you every week for several in a row. Likelihood this season happens. I mean, earlier conversation doesn't make me feel very good do you think i'm going to see any college football games this year i think the news out of the pac-12 is and also kurt herbst which we did not mention said the big 10 is looking at just kind of postponing things for a couple of weeks right

those are encouraging things because I feel like, again, the Pac-12, the SEC have done the right things in waiting to do this. And you can still push the season back, obviously, and make this happen as we look. I guess the bar is so low now for numbers, but in certain places, the South and the West, they're getting – it's getting a little better. The bar is low, but a little better.

If we continue on that track, which means that we continue to do phase one or phase 1.5 or whatever we're doing right now, there's a possibility it does happen. But I think testing is the number one problem, which we saw the NFL handle. Look, the NFL spent $75 million to test 32 teams, players every day for two weeks, and then once basically every other day. College football has got to come together and say, look, we have to shoulder the cost of this testing. We have to find a way to pay for all the schools. Because look, only a couple schools in every conference can afford to pay for testing like

this. Got to come together and make this happen. And on with this last thing is that there is more positive results from these saliva tests. And if that gets kind of rapidly approved, that could cure a lot of the issues with the testing problems we have right now. Saliva test comes back quicker. And it's saying it might be kind of better as far as less false positive. So way in there, Gabe. I'm hopeful. I've been hopeful this whole time. Someone called me a Corona bro, Coronavirus bro, whatever it is.

I was like, guys, I've been rooting for football to be back this entire time. So, all right, Gabe. Go enjoy some more adult beverages. I am going to relax. I'm going to turn off Twitter, mate, for the rest of the night. We'll see if that actually works.

I think that'd be a good idea. That'd be good for me. All right, everyone. Thank you for listening. I hope I was able to fully explain the issues surrounding college football right now. And we had some fun at the end of the show. We'll be back on Thursday. AFC North, NFC North.

We'll handle those. We'll have a couple of props as well. All right, guys. Take care. Hope we talk to you next time. College Football is still on. Have a great week.