Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Flag Football? Pro Days? Which Offseason Stories Deserve Your Attention

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Geoff and Matt are back to cover some of the latest bombshells from the NFL Media. Arvell Reese can't touch his toes! Ruben Bain is part T-Rex... and it's the wrong part! Tom Brady is coming out of retirement! Oh wait a second, should I be taking any of these news reports seriously? Tune in to find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, we're back here. It is Friday the 27th. Jeff Schwartz, Matt Ford, Jeff Schultz, smarter than you. We're talking football, Matt. Later on the show, we have a lot of other things to talk about. College basketball, my journey of hair loss and transformation into having hair. My confrontation with the Duke Center in 2010.

We just taped, if you're watching on YouTube, you're probably laughing because we just taped a full thing. And then we were like, we didn't talk about football for 25 minutes. So why don't we put football first? Thanks. Good call by Hank. So we're doing football first. Yeah. Offscene storylines, pro days, and this hilarious reaction to the flag football game last weekend is very,

very funny, Matt. Where would you like to begin? Why don't we start with that flag football if that doesn't throw our colleague Hank off here? Let's do that. A couple of things that were big stories than that one. I'll go with the first one. Tom Brady looked a little bit like Tom Brady

Granted it was flag football But there was even some talk of like Hey should this guy unretire? He's only 48 years old now What was your sort of reaction to people flipping out over Brady Looking super crisp in the silly flag football game? I saw so this game by the way was on during the middle of March Madness on Saturday Okay I saw two clips from this whole game.

One, Joe Burrow getting taken out, which is insane that the Bengals allowed this to happen. And two was one of the football players juking out Luke Keekely, who was retired from football, and DeAndre Hopkins, who's a wide receiver. Yep. And the reaction from the internet to a game of flag football where we had half-retired players and half-active players who do not play flag football against professional flag football players, who eventually, by the way, like every game we played, we got better. And eventually, like, the reaction is so funny to me.

People were like, see, this charges the NFL players. What? What does NFL players? Because they lost in a flag football game. My whole point about this whole thing has been this, very simply. If you had Olympics today, you would take the USA flag football team as is, right? Because they're better than the, like, no surprise. that Luke Kinkley was trying to tackle the dude

not grab his flags. Yeah, because he's an NFL linebacker who, by the way, is been hired for five years. He was going to the Hall of Fame in August. Like, what do I? But if you tell me, Sekeland and Barclay can't learn to play flag football in two years, if that's what he did, of course he'd figure it out.

But the reaction, Matt, was like, people were very, very serious about their takes, including this Tom Brady thing. I, I, um, The thing that's most interesting about Tom Brady, Matt, is, now I was obviously never as good as Tom Brady, but when I finished playing, like, I was done, man. I know a lot of my friends that are, like, just done, right?

They're done playing. And there's a piece in knowing you're done. I knew I was done. Just I'm over. Never thought about coming back. Never crossed my mind. But, like, Tom Brady very clearly, like mentally is not done with playing football yet. And that has to be a little bit, a little bit unsettling on the,

brain all times, right? To always have this feeling like, maybe I could like come back. Maybe I can't. I don't know. Like, I'm just like, no, I'm not, I'm never playing again. And I do kind of empathize a little bit that he just can't like turn this switch off and just say I'm retired forever. Like, why would you even even like he, he actually, I think thought about like, what

if I come on retirement? Yeah. He told reporters that he had considered it and that the league apparently quote, did not like that idea very much. Hard to believe that's how that conversation went, right? But even if it did go that way, which I imagine he just texts like a GM friend of his, hey, what if I want to come back?

He's like, yeah, no chance. The fact that, again, like he just is unsettled in his life to where he has to, like, pursue football still, right? Even though he is a good broadcaster, he has other business ventures outside of football. It's just like, to me. right i mean he's a part-time owner there but he has more involvement than that i think most owners sounds like he's the gm there yeah i know right but like even if he

it's still like it does i there is a little bit um like of me that feels kind of sad that he can't just be done with football if that makes sense he's i mean look man these guys like they're obsessive i know yeah it's that's just it's he's a psycho and that's one of the reasons why he was able to still be so damn good when he was in his mid-40s. I thought it was, this flag football game, I think,

proved a few things. Number one is that, like, people, it just, like, reaffirmed football's dominance. Like,

anybody who's talking about the decline of the NFL, like, it was, it got everyone's attention. Even if it was just for a few hours, even if it was make believe,

even if it was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia, like all these reasons. Like that it was. Yeah. Yeah. And instead it was here. Like,

it turned, it got the internet's attention for a day. And it also, like, it crystallized, whatever opinion you had. Jalen Hertz.

I don't know if you saw any of his, any of it. Jalen Hertz did not look good in this game. And everybody who dogs on Jalen Hertz is like, see, he sucks. And then I'll just say to this, like Jane Daniels look pretty damn good.

Like Jane Daniels had that throw from end zone to end zone. That was a dot. Like he looked great. And the whole time I'm like, he's back. We're good. Like nothing to worry about next year. So I think that it's just,

it was sort of like a mirror to whatever you already believed. But it was pretty. fun to like see the internet freak out. The only thing I did and you texted me and Hank this actually was like how Joe Burrow and Jane Daniels in particular like they were going for it. And we hadn't seen Daniels place since he left with an injury against Minnesota and Burrow like, you know, he's he's been injured so consistently throughout his career. Shocking. It was pretty surprising to see to see Jaden out there like ducking around tackles and stuff. I was like, oh my God, if he gets hurt in this, Like this is going to be a absolute disaster.

And do you think that they just didn't run it by the teams? Like, how do you think this happened? So probably not, or maybe the teams just thought they're playing quarterback. Like, cares. But Joe Burrow threw a pass and went out for a pass. Like the double pass. Like that. Yeah, so did you.

How much of the Bengals, if the Bengals would have known that, they'd probably been like, no chance. They thought he was going to sit in the pocket, get a flag pulled, like, you know, like, whatever. I don't think they thought it was going to be quite like that. out of quarterbacks in the NFL to play flag football at a high level, Jalen Hertz would not be high on my list. I agree.

Joe Burrow wouldn't be high on my list, quite frankly. It would be, you know, Jade and Daniels, it probably would be like, I mean, I think a Josh Allen will be great at it.

Like, I just don't, it just doesn't feel like Jayland Hertz to me screams football quarterback, which again, it's funny that we're sort of have any opinion other

than L. Well, we lost a football block football. I don't know how anyone can have a serious opinions about this, which is so funny, dude. The people like had real opinions about this. It's

shocking. Yeah, it is. Nice to see my guy, Jaden throw a pass though, man. God, it was a thing of beauty. Do you get excited for the season? Am I excited for this coming season? Yeah. Of course I am. And this season really, really, like,

Like it hits, the excitement is sort of building now because of the draft. And why don't we talk about that a little bit? Okay. There was a lot of talk this week on dorky NFL Twitter where I spend a lot of time about the angles that Ruben Bain and Arville were two of the premier edd rushers in this class. We're taking on the same drill. Thank you, Hank. If you're watching, you can see it there.

Basically, Ruben Bain is like, he's almost perpendicular or parallel to the grounds. And Arvel Reese is sort of standing straight up. There's a lot of talk about this class in general, but can you take me through this specific drill? Micah Parsons tweeted out, like, I don't think this matters when it comes to football. Like, is he right or does the eye test matter? So look, all you're seeing in this is the mobility that a player has

and their shin angle and like can they, you know, can they turn the corner well? But one of these, the reason why this is like a discussion specific for these two players, is Brum and Bain has shorter arms, right? So he's trying to compensate for that by showing like elite flexibility and elite burst and things like, okay, I don't need to use my arms as much.

Other guys because I have these things, right? So that's why the Ruben Bain part is important. And Reese, and I even said this in a mock draft, like people are hoping he takes to Michael Parsons' path that he's at sort of a off-the-ball linebacker that can rush the passer and moves closer to pass-rushing full-time. Okay. And so when you want to see him do a bag drill,

you want to see him more toward the pass rusher mold than the linebacker. Like he doesn't look like an elite pass rusher doing this drill. That's why people forget about it. But then you put the film on and he's able to rush the passer. So like what does it matter? Yeah. It's, I mean,

this is like every year we fall in love or fall out of love based on these workouts with a guy not even in shorts, not even wearing a shirt in Arville Reese's case. like, it's very, it's bizarre. I think I've, look, I've paid a lot of attention to the top sort of 10 to 15 guys in this class because my team's picking seventh. And like, I think that the thing I keep hearing now is there's not a lot of sure things. Like, there isn't the sort of like, okay, well, you know, if we take this tackle, like,

we can just slot him in for the next 15 years and it's going to be good. Like, even Mendoza, there's this big debate this week about Ty Simpson, which, maybe we can get to him in a second. But like, do you think that this is, that this class is just kind of like more solid than great? Or like, what do you make of these sort of top prospects where nobody seems to know

what's going to happen after number one? Um, I think it's a year that, you know, it's going to be, we have to plan our mock draft show, by the way. Yeah.

Oh, man. Best day of year. It does feel like one's Mendoza. I feel good about love going anywhere from like three to seven. But I just saw a mock draft that I'm going to commanders, by the way. Yeah. It feels like seven is where he is, is the stopping point. And that's why the chief son Kenneth Walker. I think he's, that's why they signed Kenneth Walker.

Reese is going two or three potentially. And that's sort of where it's, I mean, the Browns, I feel, are taking a line in at six. We don't know who it's going to be. Because the Giants might take a line minute at five, right? But we know sort of the players at the top. It's just, you're right. It's not, there's not a ton of guys that have these like otherworldly intangibles that make them on paper look like you're drafting Miles Garrett or Michael Parsons, right?

Like, there's not those guys. You get good football players, but not those guys. Now, the Ty Simpson thing, so he's a quarterback Alabama. And, you know, he's quarterback two, probably a first round pick. Maybe not, but probably a first round pick. But this week, Dan Rolowski got on ESPN and said he's quarterback one. Okay. Now, look, that in itself is not, you can have different evaluation.

Okay, that's totally fair. Then he went on Pat McAfee and said he text 12 to 15 decision makers and only two disagreed with his assessment of Ty Simpson being quarterback one. So that puts anywhere between 10 and 13 general managers, Matt, think Ty Simpson's the best quarterback in this draft. I'd call BS on that. You know why I'd call BS on that, Matt? Because the same people that talk to these decision makers,

Daniel Jeremiah, Dane Bruegler, like the guys that Mel Kiper that put these mock drafts together, they don't do it on their own, they do it with information they gather from the people that are in charge. None of them have Ty Simpson quarterback won. Not even close.

Not even close. And I know people want to point to like the agency connection between Dan Orlovsky and Ty Simpson. I don't think he's being told to push Ty Simpson. Maybe he is Matt. I have an agent. He'll ask me every now.

and then to tweet about a player, okay, you know, that's fine. I'm not out there, like, telling people that this guy's better than that guy. Maybe that's connection. I just don't really, like, I tweet this out. Like, is the best kept keeper in the NFL that Ty Simpson's the best quarterback in this draft and no one knows about it? I just don't, this feels like one of those assessments that it feels, A, a little hot take, but B, this is why the draft is more sometimes than just the film, right?

because you have a quarterback that has played one year's a starter, okay? I'm going to pull up the list right now. Lance Zerlind, NFL.com. He writes all of their 400 draft profiles, okay? Here's a list of quarterbacks with one-year starting experience drafted inside the top 100 since 1999. Mark Sanchez, Notre Chibisky, Ryan Tannale, Colin Murray, Dwayne Haskins, Trey Lance, Mac Jones, Davis Mills, Anthony

Richard Achilles Smith. It's not, so you have that, you have the idea that again, like he played okay or better for nine games that back half of the year when better competition wasn't very good, right? Like, you know, he doesn't have, you know, a skill set, like an otherworldly athletic profile, right?

So I just think that when you go out and say he's quarterback one for me, and he might as well be, it just feels like you're so out there. that it has to be a hot take. You know what I mean, Matt? I'm not saying you can't have a different opinion than anyone else, but it seems to be that that opinion is so contrary to everyone else. That's why it feels like he's doing it for just to have a different opinion.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, it got people really fired up. And I think people are, people get really angry when it feels disingenuous. And when it's like something, like this isn't a debate. Like the Raiders aren't even if, even if like the Raiders top scout was to be like,

you know what? I think, Simpson is better. They're taking Mendoza. So it's sort of like a pointless... I think people felt like they were getting an agenda pushed at them when... I'm not sure that that was Rolovsky's intent.

Like, he doesn't seem like he's just like trying to chill for somebody else to me. For Simpson in particular, like, you know, I can't claim I've watched a ton of his games. You mentioned the just lack of starts. He actually only started 15 games, and there's three quarterbacks who went in the first round who had 15 or fewer college starts.

starts. Richardson, Trubisky, Anthony Richardson, Trubisky, and Dwayne Haskins. And none of them have had the career than anyone hoped. And keep in mind, too, Simpson, he measured at 6-1, and he's 2-11, like, he's slight. So we're talking about, that's like two-a-sized,

it's Russell-Wilson size. Like, it's not impossible, but it's like every outlier you can possibly think of. So, like, at the end of the day, like, you can at least point to Mendoza and be like, all right, he's got the size. He's got, you know, he showed up in some really big games, he got better as the season went along.

He is who everybody, you know, if we let him go, then everyone would want to take him. Like, it just seems like it's a foregone conclusion and just like a classic sports TV show topic in late March. But I was intrigued that the whole internet got so fired up about that because like it's, it's whatever. It's the wrong take. But I think the question is more like, is Ty Simpson this year's like Jackson Dart, who somebody's going to come up in the late first and try to grab? or is he going to be one of these second round quarterbacks? And those second round quarterbacks, by the way, never pan out. It's like you're either, if you need convincing that they belong in the second rounds,

it's probably not going to work. It's probably not going to work. And it seems like the Jets want him, not pick two, but like pick whatever they're 16, 17, whatever they have, whatever in the middle of the draft. I don't know why they would do that. It's like just wait a year. I've mentioned this many times, but it was worth repeating. So the reason why we have pro days and physical workouts of the combine and measurables, right, height, weight,

is to have a database of information to look at comps that have worked well in the past, right? So you look at like Mendoza's profile, his success in college. He's not a perfect prospect, by the way. There's plenty of things that I have question marks about for Mendoza. But you're like, okay, that sort of tracks to sort of. success in the NFL, right? Like, Ty Simpson's track is not successful in the NFL. And so do you, are you baking your job on the outlier hitting or just if you're the Jets, just waiting to next season and drafting the seven guys that potentially could be first round picks that follow the Mendoza track,

right? And that's what we have, by the way. So we have testing data. Like, are you taking any sort of player that doesn't fit that historical kind of creation of what a good player is? Now, of course, My fair example of an outlier, my brother had one of the horrific combines of all time. Like just so we talk a lot about on this show, we've done it before, the RAZ score, right? The relative athletic score. And it's Kent Lee does it. He's great. It's a good tool, right?

It's not the be all end all, but it just gives you an idea of like, you know, how good, how athletic is a player, right? And it just looks at their scores, at their physical testing. scores and height and weight and everything. And, you know, a 10 is great, right? You know, there are some guys that get 9-9-9-8s. My brother was like a 2-7-5. And he ended up being a four-time mall pro.

It's not the B-L-End all, right? What round? What round? He also wasn't, it also wasn't that bad. Like, his numbers were not that bad. You combine it with his height and weight. So his broad jump was bad, but his 40 wasn't slow. He still did enough bench,

press and stuff. But my point is like you have this, this is why the testing is done, right? So Ty Simpson doesn't fit sort of any of those successful paths we've seen at that position before. And so you make him quarterback one. See, that thing is it ignores all the other things, Matt, that make him not quarterback one,

but just saying, oh, the film shows he's one. But what about the experience? What about the play in big games? What about this and that? And that's why the take felt hot takeish to me. Yeah. Yeah, it did. It's also like, you know, you go through some of these, you know, I'm looking at like last years just on some random website, like some combine results. And, you know, oh my gosh, these offensive linemen like 99th percentile and whatever. And it's like guys I've never heard of. Like I don't like, who does Holland Pierce play for? He was like 99th percentile on a bunch of things. You know, it doesn't necessarily like athleticism does not necessarily predicate. to indicate success.

I think there are some teams like my team really values those kinds of scores because I think it's, I think it's like a floor thing. It's like Mendoza's height and size. You know, there are less ways, there are more ways for him to succeed because of those traits. And I think that a lot of people value that when they're looking, you know,

the draft at the end of the day, like it is kind of a shot in the dark, you know? So it makes sense to me why that it's so important. But I think, yeah, like using precedent and, and just your critical thinking of just like, hey, man,

this 6'1 quarterback who's only started 15 games might not be ready to be a starter in week one. I agree. It's why I... It's why I just... I don't get the Ty Simpson thing. Yeah. Well, I mean, interesting.

Like, your guy Kenyon Sadiq, and a lot of talk about him as a tight end, like maybe even crack in the top 10 or top 12. He came in with like 99th percentile in tight ends in all these measurements. And people are talking about, we're talking about that this week. Like, I don't know.

Is he going to be, like, is he going to be as good as Brock Bowers because of his insane combine? Like, you know, I don't think so. No, I don't think so either. There's some, we have some question marks, just like I do with every,

every player, right? Yeah. But I, I, yeah, I, I, I think he's going to be, um, he'll have, he's small-ish, right, compared to Brock Bowers, just sheet progress like six five right

at least it's a little smaller so you have to just factor those things in right that's part of this whole thing yeah I think um I I wonder how much who was it was it the giants that year when they ended up picking who I forget which I guess this was the Daniels year

because I think this it was about Daniels so it was two years ago when Shane it was hard knocks and Shane's like son or something or dayball son. I forget who it was. The GM was just like, hey, who should we pick? And the kid was like,

I think Jaden Daniels is going to be good. Like, I think there's some part of this where like, you can just like use your eyeballs for four seconds and be like, yeah, that guy's probably going to be good. And sometimes, I wonder like how often you could just put like an idiot like me or somebody and just

this, you know, this GM's son. Just be like, hey, is that guy going to be good or not? Like, I feel like it can't be that.

hard and also like the more data you have the worse like if you when you have to start making the case like well you know tie simpson he's good at pre-snap and you know maybe if it was like this and like this like that's when you can get you get screwed up and that's just human nature right and i also think this very true the more time you have the more you convince yourself of other things right so like i'm a big fan of just sort of like your your gut take right like what's your gut tell you on this of course you know data is important to have it can inform you right and can also change your mind, but it feels like that that's a take where like you felt very good about Mendoza for months and you just had more times.

And you can make the case that with time, I guess you can make a more accurate decision on these type of things. But this feels like a decision that you come to when you just watch too much film. Right, exactly. Right. And you need something to say. Like I, you know, I think even with the best of intentions, like you still have to fill a lot of TV.

Yeah. So I guess I want to talk, you know, we're about to the end here. but I am curious. We talked about Jeremiah, I love a little bit. How do you, do you feel like he's, we've talked to, you know, you're pretty anti-investment in running back. I've changed my opinion a little bit on running back.

Yeah, the chiefs made a good investment that I'm sure. Well, so my take is simply this, right? Like, if you have infrastructure around the running back, right, you add Saquo and Barker's and Eagles, right? You had Christian McCaffrey the Niners. You add, you know, Jamir Gibbs to that offensive line in Detroit. It can really supercharge your offense.

You had Ascenti to a bad Raiders' offensive line, waste of a draft pick, right? So if you're drafting Jordan, I mean, Jeremiah Love, it feels like the same situation where, you know, I know they can, Lins are like com Tim on NFL.com to Jamir Gibbs. I don't quite see that exact comp for him.

It's a much bigger. But, you know, I, at least the thing of draft season is the comp stuff. I hate the comp stuff. I just think it's so, it's really I get why we do it right because when you know for a lot of us

I'm not watching every player right Matt so if I go to their profile and I see oh this is Jamir Gibbs-esque oh okay like I could right like it makes sense but it is almost it does the players no favors I remember like on draft day when you watch you guys get drafted

oh he moves like Tyreek Hill oh geez I mean okay well you know he's a 511 D tackle Aaron Donald you're like the best you've got to tackle the generation that's like what we're going to give a comp to and we're giving a comp to maybe the best running back in the NFL and maybe marie me love can be that good but that's just a high bar to clear man to be the next jemir gibbs yeah it is i will say though

he he he doesn't really remind me gibbs like he reminds me more of peterson like he's so your former teammate like he's so physical and so big and fast like there's something about him where you're like this is not like this isn't a guy you see every day you're day. Like, Genti reminded me more of like, I don't know, he's like so compact like that.

Like there's more of examples of guys like that, I feel like. But with love, you're like, dude, this guy looks like he could be a receiver. Like he's just, he's built like really differently.

I'm just curious. I mean, there's so much talk about where he's going to go. And I think you could make, like I've heard people make the case that the Cardinals should take him. That seems kind of crazy to me because I have so many other needs. I don't think the Cardinals should do it. I think that if you told,

me Tennessee did it because they wanted to help Cam Ward out, I wouldn't surprise me, right? It kind of makes sense. The Giants, I think John Harbaugh looks at what Derek Henry did for him and decides they want to go in that direction. Cleveland should be a no. And then your commanders at seven feel like the last choice for him. Yeah, and it feels like the commander's spot, if he makes it there,

there's a lot of questions of like, okay, well, would they take him? I think the answer is definitely certainly he's in consideration. but then the real question is, would someone move up for him? And I'm curious, like, if somebody would be willing to jump up into the top 10, you have to pay a pretty hefty price. You'll give your first round pick next year for certain.

Yeah, you would. And I'm wondering, like, there isn't really a team that makes sense to me that could do that. Like, that is very Rams-ish, but I don't think they value that enough, and I think they're pretty happy with their two backs. Who would that be?

Would it be... Good question. question it's it's something that's you know coming into my head a lot like like i don't think washington would do it with dallas but they're like the right kind of team um would the you know chargers do it they just they just spent one on hampton like it seems like they probably wouldn't like jets if they want to get off of hall maybe they have that 16th like i don't know i don't so you know it's possible but then i think Washington like i've talked myself into, I'm curious what you think.

I think if Tate is there, that I think that's who I would pick now. I think over love or if love is enough? I think so, just because I think like a, depending, you know, the Ayuk thing is just kind of strange, but I just think high floor, wide receiver, premium position, like long career. You immediately, like, you just,

you can upgrade your offense so much by just having like a very reliable, top receiver opposite McLaren. And I think with Daniels, they just, I think they have to pick offense. So, but I don't know. If they pick love, like, man, just really.

He's a good football player though, man. He's a really good football player. I will say, though, I, I do push back on this, what I hear during draft season, right? Like, he's more than a running back. No, he's a running back. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. He's running back. He's running back. Yeah. I mean, what's your thought on, on these wide receivers? Do you have them, right? Do you feel like you have an opinion of who's,

who's going to be the best? I mean, I think like if you told me that no one was injured, I think Jordan Tyson's probably the best, but he's always hurt. He's been hurt. So I would go with, I mean, I don't know how you pass on a Ohio Statewide receiver and Tate, right?

Like how you think he's not the best. Look at what they've done and what they've produced in the NFL. Yeah, I agree. And it's like they've all kind of measured the same. like the slowish 40s like the stuff that doesn't necessarily pop in and you're like oh jsn is like the best receiver in the league you know yeah again like you know the numbers matter as i mentioned it gives you a good idea of of where they fit in NFL range but you would rather have a guy that ran a four or five but caught caught the ball ran great routes or guy that runs a four or three

you can't do any of those things right like you would take you would take the other two right you would take the or the other one you know they runs a tiny bit slower but catches everything Yeah, I'm very curious how this will shake out. I've been told that, Jeff, there's one comp in this draft process. I think this was from last year. But these comps that people make for the draft picks now are getting very precise. Hank, maybe you want to throw this one up here. How about Matt Gonclaves NFL comp, Jeff Schwartz?

This is why, okay. This is why my Twitter profile says beefy lineman, because the first line of that Scatterner Report says he's a beefy lineman. That's so great. Third round pick and a tackle too. Like I think that's interesting. Land Zerlind was writing him up and text me and was like, hey, I'm comping him for,

I'm giving you, you're going to be his comp. I'm like, oh, buddy, that's not great. How's he doing? How's this is. He said, beefy, look, beefy linemen. That's the first line of his overview.

Fine. He's doing okay. He's doing well. He's, he is a guard. Definitely not a seventh round pick, though, which was what he comp to Matt. Started all season for the Colts. All right. Comping him to me is probably just the worst thing imaginable. I don't know, man. It must mean he is great hair.

It must mean he does have great hair. We're going to talk about my great hair in a minute or two. We're talking about college basketball. All right, Matt. Any last words that in the middle of the podcast? Uh, no, I had a great time. Thank you for, uh, any baseball takes today? Any baseball takes today? I think if you have a baseball take for any time from now until, uh, football season, you are insane. Do you, do you have a baseball team you root for?

Not really. I'm, I'm allowing Jack, my son to dictate our baseball future. Don't want to be a Dodger fan. Don't be, don't be, don't, you want to be, like, pretentious. I, dude, I've spent my life in, in poverty. Like, God. God forbid, I take the elevator to wealth. You know what I mean? Like, dude, I've sat through some, I sat through two decades of Orioles. Then the nationals came and then, you know,

they had a moment. Now they're back in the gutter. They're going to be like 60 win team this year. They're bad. Yeah, but it's like, do I ever get to enjoy sports or do I just have to work in them and like just never, never enjoy anything?

Like, like, I'm ready. I'm ready to be, I'm ready for my son to be like, hey, these Lakers look pretty good and not be like, Oh, Trey Young, that max extension, that was a good idea. Like, I'm not, it's not happening. I want to be free.

I want him to be free. I want him to have a better life. What if he chooses like angels, clippers? He won't pick the angels. Trust me. You won't even know who the angels are. Imagine there's an angel's clippers fan out there. This has got to be someone.

I actually am not sure that that person exists. You could have chosen the Dodgers and Lakers. You chose the Clippers and Angels. Yeah. Jack was born in Santa Monica. He could be a Lakers fan. Like Clippers, like Clippers,

Angels, like UCLA men's football. Like that's like you could have chosen like you. Because the Ducks have won the title, so of the king. So you could choose like, you know, that wouldn't be,

I think Anaheim pretty much is terrible now in hockey. But, God, yeah, we should. What? They have a hockey team? I want to meet,

I want to meet an Angels Clippers fan. I'm sure. were there out there. Please, please let me know how that's going for you. Yeah, if that's, if you're there, let us know. Oh, you know how it's pretty good this year. They're the fourth in there in the Western Conference. Wow. I literally didn't. Are they the ducks? Yes.

No, I literally didn't even know they were a team. But what's funny is I think their jerseys now are like orange, which is like odd because that's not what they used to be, obviously. Obviously to you, maybe. What? obviously to you maybe I mean they it was the

it was the mighty ducks yeah so so Anaheim got the mighty ducks and angels in the outfield and still have no fans and that was like when we were kids that's absolutely insane I mean the mighty ducks was

was legit like a promotion for the actual hockey team so it was angels in the outfield had to be too it was like right but they just were already in Southern California like the ducks were like not

oh they were like expansion team yeah like they weren't even there yet like and they took the uniform from the I think I'm correct on this from like from the movie that's insane this is like how that video game golden eye was just like an ad for the movie golden eye but like everyone played it forever and it just turned into this amazing game like what were we doing in the 90s man people were cooking uh

they were um yeah I mean look the the Mighty Ducks the movie came on 1992 that's the same year the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The Mighty Ducks started in 1993. Like Anaheim. I think that this is, that's what it was. Yeah. And then Space Jam led to Michael Jordan on retiring. Like it's, this all happened. The Ducks were founded as an expansion team for 93 season by the Walt Disney

Company. We're known as the Middice Anaheim and named based on the Mighty Ducks film. Dude, that's so insane. Unbelievable branded content. My God. Can't beat it now. Can't do that now. All right, buddy. It was good talking with you.

Hope you guys enjoy the hair talk and the basketball talk. We'll back next Friday I'll be in Mexico. So we'll be back maybe the following Friday. With our mock draft fairly soon. Talk to you guys in the next couple weeks. Take care, everybody. It is Friday, March 27th. I'm Jeff Schwartz.

That is Matt Ford. This is Jeff Schwartz. You presented by Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. We're going to touch everything today, Matt. Some college basketball that's happening right now. Maybe we'll touch an MLB opening weekend. Probably not.

And there's NFL news. There's five football news. Just all of it, Matt. How would we do? You look like you have been the California son a little bit. Ooh, I think that's, is that good? That seems good. It's great.

Yeah, it's starting to get hot here. It's been 90 today. I got a little tan on the baseball field every day of the week it feels like. Yeah, you look good. You look nice. It's the hair. It's the hair. It's just two super smoking hot video podcasters today.

I know if you're listening to this in the car, please don't rush to YouTube. But the hair definitely, the procedure worked, okay? It definitely worked, like I've got to say. I did it in August and Meredith was like, look, you do more TV, your hair is starting to go, like, just do it now and get it over with. And I did it. And I didn't think it would work, Matt. I thought there's zero chance it actually works. And the hair is like back.

Like it came back like fully. The alleys are like everything filled in. Like it's, I didn't think it would work at all. It does look really good. I didn't know we were talking about this publicly. Like, let's talk about it. I mean, my hair was starting to go. we explored doing the the um the hair restoration treatment for a couple years now i just decided to do

it was i saw a picture myself i'm like oh geez like when you look on camera it was starting to go and i do some little tv stuff you know they put bare bets on tv now so um i just add a look hey people it's been so it was i did in august my favorite part is where's the hat at i didn't stop working and so i did in august and so what i did was um I wore this hat. Okay, so basically when you have the procedure, right? Like, when you have the procedure, they take hair from the back of your head and put it on the front of your head or top of your head, right?

And so they kind of shave you all down. The doc told me he's like, man, I'm going to hit you with a great fade. It didn't, the great fade did not occur. Just so it was bad. So the point is, like, you don't touch like your head for a week, okay? So what I did was I took this hat and I cut out the back of this hat like this, right? and then I just, I just, you know, I basically taped it together like that and put it on my head. And so it was open in the back.

So it was not touching any of the new hair that got put on top of my head. And it's a little oversized. And I did some shows with it in August. And Hank did a great job editing. I gave him a shout out because if I put my head down at all, like the hair is popping on the back of my head. How do you be like, you tell me to sit up straight. So, yeah, I thought I'm happy I did it, man. It looks good.

I didn't go to Turkey for it, by the way, did it in Charlotte. And it ended up being good for me. It's good for the hair. I think this is one of those, like, I didn't realize how many people, like, in, that are on television or in movies or whatever. Like, every single man loses their hair a little.

Like, no matter what, nobody has no hair. Like, there's a few people who have, like, no hair loss. But for the most part, like men as they age, like, are going to deal with this. And until like 20, 24, like no one ever did anything about it. And now all of a sudden, like, everyone's doing something about it. And it's like, I will say, like, I've definitely experienced some hair loss, like, for sure. And it's like, it gets, it messes with you.

Like, it's challenging. You be a full head of hair in the back. Like, you'd be a good to get the, no, it's good. To get the, to get the hair restoration. You know what's funny about it too, Matt is my wife has never commented on like, my shape of my body my how big I am like just like fat around the stomach at times body hair none of that the only thing she has ever cared about is is the hair like I don't know why that that was like her thing like she's like you know maybe it's time to do that it's not like she's

like she's like maybe it's time to take ozampic maybe it's time to like shave your back hair it just was like the hair thing I don't know why it was like a thing for her like this is like what she like and and uh yeah so I explored the procedure for like for a year finally got it done And that's why I think my hair looks so good. It's because I mean, it looks great. It's tough, man. It's people like, we're all dealing. You suddenly hear like, wait, I'm not aging.

Like, I'm still a young guy. I'm still my 30s. Like, what's going on here? Like, I'm full of youthful exuberance. What could possibly be going on? And then you wake up on a Wednesday morning and you sneeze the wrong way and your back locks up for a week. Yeah.

Yeah. You're like, why do I have gray right here? When did this happen? And it's just like, the grades are coming in. I don't care about the grays. The grays are coming down the side when my hair gets

longer like they come in on the sides it's i i don't care about the great i got a couple great you know great chin hairs like that's not a big deal to me it's very distinguished uh it is like like our like our like our buddy dan rubinstein looks great it's that the gray hair now like i i've told many times i like it's like distinguished like it makes them look very smart yeah multiple kids get change your changes your hair it does my hair started thinning immediately after i became a parent like i look at pictures literally there's one right here in the hospital holding my son I'm like, man, my hair looks good. Like a month later, it's like fucking gone.

It's all, it's all gone. We've all, you're right. Also, too, I think with the hair restoration, the, it's just easy to get it done in Turkey now. It costs like, like, like, two grand. I mean, it costs like nothing. It wasn't, you know, it was under 10 grand in Charlotte. It was at home. But, like, and they said they have to lower their prices because it's so cheap elsewhere.

Like, they have to lower their prices to get people to stay in town into it. I have a friend. here who uh in l a who like nobody heard from for like 10 days and everyone was like is this guy okay i'm not gonna use his name and he just comes back and sends a photo he's like yeah i was in turkey his hair is just like a giant quaff it looks like hangs there and he was like bald and we're just like what the hell how long are you gone he's just like yeah i did it i don't want to talk about it but like it looks great i don't why like why do we have to pretend like if these things don't happen? Like I don't, why don't I care? People know that I got little hair plugs, like hair restoration.

It wasn't even hair plugs, it's hair restoration. Like, it just took my hair from the back and put it to the front. I'm not ashamed. I will, you want to know, I won't tell you a funny story, though. Then we'll talk about sports. So I'm in this medical suite, right? They have two basically rooms, ORs, those call them ORs, operating rooms, like at, at this plastic surgery center, right? And one is like the stale room, right? That's where they do like the breast augmentation and the faceless stuff. One is sort of a non-stale room. that they do the hair restorations in and other stuff, right? And they had a chair in there that just was not built for me, Matt, okay?

Just not built it all for me. And they have to lay you flat for a good majority of when they're taking out your hair at the beginning. And then you eventually move to like you flip over on your back and it gets you more of in a chair-esque posture, lean back a little bit to put the things back in your head. And so the end of the chair, had a hydraulic like up and down piece to put your legs on, okay? But the hydraulic part where your legs on wouldn't hold my legs up, okay?

And so we have to put a stool under there to hold my legs up, okay? So it's like 12.30 in the afternoon. We're about to have lunch, okay? And he's pulled all the hair out of my back of my head inside, and he has it in a little like a little cup next to the chair. and he's he's making the holes in my head right now to put the hair back into, okay? So we call lunch, 1230, we call lunch. And he's now going to take the chair that's like in a certain position and move it so I can

get up off the chair. We forgot that these stools underneath the chair, Matt. And I basically ejected like over backwards, like head over heels. And it's like 2,000 pound chair and my fat ass went back like head over heels. Oh my God. I like the dude had like this heat. The chair got to be in it like is busted his leg up. I, you know, I'm fine, but my shoulder like got bruised.

My hair follicles like fell everywhere. Like, like, now most of them fell like from the bowl onto like the table. So it wasn't a big deal. And he said that they're very sterile. Like you just wash them and like they're going to be even if they fell on the ground, they would have been fine. But yeah, first time that ever happened. I just got ejected like because as the chair started to fold back to where it needed to be,

that's still underneath, we didn't realize it was there, and it, like, it pushed it in the wrong direction. And I tried to get up and, like, just boom, everywhere. It was, it was a mess. This is, like, straight out of, like, some, some TV show. Like, every day, I feel like I hear one thing when I'm like, that should be in a TV show.

And, like, that's my one for today. They were great. I, nothing to say bad about the procedure, the place I went to, that was great. But yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was a weird. They'd never had to have to have. happened than before.

All right. So no easy transition. It is for sure the off season. We're 14 minutes in and all we talked about his hair loss. And we might not talk about football at all because I won't talk to you about college basketball. Okay. I don't know if I watch a ton of college basketball during the year.

I mostly just watch games I gamble on, which tends to be a decent amount during the regular season. But I watch, dude, a ton of these college basketball games now. Are you enjoying college basketball? So my take, very simply, is that I enjoy when the best teams play each other. So I'm okay with none of these mid-majors in the Sweet 16. Like the games yesterday were mostly good. Houston just couldn't score any baskets.

You know, Arizona won big, but that game, they scored 100 points. I mean, it was entertaining game. The first two games, buzzer-beater for Purdue, basically, at the end there, right? and then in the Nebraska game, Iowa scored the last 16 points in a row. It was two great games. So I like it like this, Matt. I know people don't.

I kind of don't understand the argument why you wouldn't like the best teams playing this time of season. Yeah, I mean, I think because people love the like, you know, that was that 15 C that be Kentucky that year, like those Florida Gulf Coast years. It was like VCU, George Mason. Yeah, George Mason.

Shout out to them. I mean, I think, yeah, the Cinderella's, I think, are people's, like, favorite parts of March Madness. Like, those are the years that we remember more than, like, the years when, you know, Duke beats Kentucky in the finals or whatever. Like, I think that, but I think we're still getting them. Like, you know, we have a nine seed in the, in the, what, Elite Eight. Like, this is, it's still there.

I just think, you know, college sports are going to have to adjust to this new era where now like the, you know, that remember, like, it became sort of common that, like, when we were kids, dude, like a one losing to a 16 was insane. And then it happened at least once. Happened twice. And then like a two, like it seemed like a 15 was beating a two like every year. And it became to the point where it was like, oh my God, this is just mayhem. Like you can't even predict these March Madnesses anymore. And now it's sort of going back the other way to how it was when we were younger. Like a two losing to a 15 was unheard of until like the mid two. 2000s. It was like absolutely insane and then the UMBC thing changed everything. Um, but I think I think that's kind of where we're headed is a new era of that, but it's not as, it's not even as bad as it was back in like the 2000s. I mean, I think you know, part of part of it is you know, NIL obviously, you know, but also to like the transfer border, right? If you have a good season at, you know, a mid-major, you're, you're at a big dog school immediately, right? But like,

Think about these matchups we have. I mean, today is Friday, as we record this, as I mentioned, in, in, I think it's D.C., right? Yeah, it's D.C. tonight. You get St. John's and Duke, and you get Michigan State, Yukon. Yeah. Like, you get Rick Petino, and you get Izzo, and you get Dan Hurley and Yukon, and you get Duke and you get Duke and Shire. And I know how much you love John Shire, so this will be a fun matchup for you to watch tonight.

John Shire was the point card of Duke when I was at. Maryland and Maryland was in the ACC and when Duke came like people would it was impossible Maryland's basketball stadium is like pretty big and the student section like is you know they have a lottery

so all the year you are incentivized to go when they play you know Cop and State and Howard and whatever at the beginning of the season so that you can get Duke tickets and like I you know I went to every game and there was one year I was the best year I was there was

2010 when Vasquez and Co were co-champs at the ACC. And Duke was like the second-ranked team or something, and we were like, I don't know, in the top 12. And they came to town and we beat their asses. And it was unbelievable. It was like my favorite night of college. And I'm sitting, I, whatever, I somehow ended up like in the first couple of rows. And I made court, and we were right behind the Duke bench.

So all game, we're just chirping at Duke. And they're so used to it. it like duke players are like they're like investment bankers they just they're like so stone cold like they don't get phased by the crowd because they're everywhere they go they get treated

the same yeah but maryland like you know we're we're sort of our own breed so the game bends people are storming the court and i'm like not really able to move from my seats and as people storm the court you know it's pretty hard to get off the court in those situations yeah so literally like the duke players are are

they're surrounded by security and like Maryland fans weren't like going to do anything to them but they're just sort of stuck and they're standing like right where I'm sitting they're like there's coach K, there's Nolan Smith, there's Shire and Brian Zubeck, the center who's like 7-1 is just like looking in my direction

watching people like scores of people like pass him and I'm like I'm just locking eyes with this guy keep in mind like 7 foot one center for Duke I'm locking eyes of them and I'm like, Zubak! Zubak!

Fuck you! Like really, really loud. Like directly in his eyes. And I say it like a couple of times. And he just, after the third time, he looks at me and he's like,

no, fuck you. And we're just like screaming at each other. And I'm like, yes, I got him. The story doesn't end. So I moved to New York

after I graduate. And like my second night in New York, I'm at some bar and this giant walks in. It's like a beer pong place. And he walks in. And I'm playing beer pong and he gets on the table next to me. And I'm like, oh my God, this guy, I told, I swore at him at Maryland and now here he is. Like, what am I going to do?

And I just walked right up to him. And I was like, hey, man, like, you probably don't remember this. But at Maryland's like, I remember for sure. I was pretty mean to you. Like, we had just beaten you. And like, I've always felt kind of bad about that. So like, sorry. And he looked at me and he goes, I remember.

Of course you remember. Yes. Yes. I would be like, I don't know, it was nice to him and whatever. And then the night went on. but we were dude we remember those specific things because they're it's not often that you're going to get an answer and you sort of remember the times because he probably feels the same way like he's like why the why did i answer that guy yeah exactly probably feels the same way about i i dude dude that's so

funny man um this is a seven foot like 300 pound beast and i like you know i had i would have had no chance. That's so funny, dude. I love that so much. I went to almost every Oregon basketball game when I was in college. Have I ever talked to this story about how I got tickets? No. I think you'll like this.

We will talk about something else. So we had a freshman dorm that was actually for an athlete dorm was crazy. It was a co-ed dorm that athletes and regular students. It was a shit show. You can imagine. Imagine a co-ed dorm like with all the athletes that are freshmen in Oregon. So I met one of our basketball players, Chamberlough Gucci, who ended up playing on the Nigerian national team.

He might still be playing. Good basketball player, you know, had a stip in the NBA. But I had a car, okay, which is rare. I had a car. I paid a Chinese restaurant across the street. I paid them for parking. So I parked like in their lot year round. I think my parents worked out of deal for like 50 bucks a month.

like I'll pay a 50 bucks a month kind of park there because you can't if you park there's no parking like in the dorm area so and and champ said to me hey man um can i use your car at night after you go to bed or something i was like okay just like don't screw it up i probably in hindsight like if i were my advice to my kid would be don't give him your car right like that like that would be my advice now as a parent like i look back i'm like why did i give my keys so in return he gave me tickets for four years to basketball games wow so I'd have to wait in line. And so he would, he used my car, I don't know, 15 times as a freshman.

Every now and then he'd call me, like, and he'd come to my apartment when I moved out as the dorms and get my car. I don't know why. He had, I think, I don't know why he would take my car, but, um, and the deal was, because I got tickets for four years in a row, never had to stand in line like you did for tickets. And I would sit with my, with my buddy of mine who is, was English or is English, and we'd sit the first row of the second level.

So no one was in front of us, this new section. And my buddy is an English soccer fan buddy. And he cheers a much different way that we do. And he was into the games. Middle fingers, like Custinandah. But our arena sat 9,000. It was Matt Court. It was built in 1920.

Like the rims would shake when it was loud because if you jumped up and down enough, this building shook. It was a ton of fun. No go watch games. I had so much fun when we watched games there. 07, we beat UCLA number one in the country at the time. It was a ton of fun.

All right. I'm being totally at the other break, Matt, before we actually talk about anything that people are here for. But when we get back, we'll do some football. Be right back.